


Why are we so clumsy around each other?

by Ian_MD



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Comedy, Developing Friendships, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Fun, Hardships, High School, Light Character Study, Problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-06-13 08:25:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 59,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15360300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ian_MD/pseuds/Ian_MD
Summary: After the Monoma incident the day prior, the whole school has their eye on Ren Amamiya and Makoto Niijima.Both of them, however, discover they have two common enemies that will try and make their relationship as awkward as possible:Feelings and hormones.Their friends don't make things easier, either.*Takes place right after "How can lies hurt so much?""Should we plan this at all?", A.K.A, chapter 2 has been posted! The summary is within the story!"What should we do...?", chapter 3 is now up! Summary is, again, within the story!"That was... unexpected...", chapter 4 is now up! Unsurprisingly, the summary is right before the chapter!"Let's enjoy our time for now. How does that sound?", chapter 5 is FINALLY up! I think I did well on this summary!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Welcome to my story! I'm going to try and write the best I can while also keeping the in-game events in mind. This story is an exercise and something I've wanted to make as soon as I saw how cool this community was! Or, should I say... the Phan-dom?!
> 
> Yeah, I'll shut up now.  
> Still, hope you enjoy this story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH BOY, I AM BACK!!!  
> Hello everyone! I'm back with chapter two!  
> Hope you enjoy this one! I tried making it lighter because 1)The last one was pretty dark and 2)I wanted to write more funny scenes  
> You will notice something big about the guest characters and I'll comment more about them in the endnotes.  
> I have some things I'll talk about in the endnotes, so please head there if you want to see me talk more in-depth about some this story!  
> (EDIT: It's not 1 A.M. anymore and I can actually put good notes and endnotes after cleaning my house! Again, sorry for being sloppy. I wanted to post this story one month after the previous one, and I was late by two days. I only write the description when I post the story, so I was pretty sleepy. I'll try not to do that again.)

**Shujin Academy**

**7:50 A.M. (10 minutes before the beginning of classes)**

“Okay, so I’m kind of lost here. What happened yesterday?”  
“The criminal punched Neito and Miss Prez took the blame.”  
“Wait, what? Why would she take the blame for him?”  
“I have no clue. All I know is that he even pretended to cry. Seems she fell for it.”  
“Why would he fake it, though? Haven’t the rumors about him been spreading for 5 months now? Anyone would break at that point. At least, I think so...”  
“Why’re you defending him? Maybe you’re just as bad as him?”  
“Yeah, probably. Nobody sides with _him_ unless they’re just like him!”  
“What?! I’m just saying we don’t know anything about the boy. Isn’t it too hasty to think every rumor about him is true?”  
“His criminal record was leaked online. There’s no doubt he is almost, if not already, a villain. And if Prez is defending him, she’s too.”  
“This is… interesting… but you know what? I just remembered I have to get to my class to study. You two have fun alone.”

The girl decided to leave the other two students, dumbfounded. Why did so many people hate the transfer student so much? They didn’t even call him by his surname, much less his actual name. People said Ren Amamiya had left a mark on the school, but she thought it was the other way: the school left a mark on the boy. And a big one at that. And for what reason? A criminal record that Kamoshida ordered Mishima to leak? As unlikely as it was, what if it was fake? Amamiya’s behavior wasn’t that of a troublemaker, delinquent or criminal. He always acted like a normal student, albeit a lot quieter, though that made sense considering his situation. The only ones he seemed to talk with were Sakamoto, Takamaki, Okumura recently and Makoto-chan.

‘ _Makoto-chan…’_ The spiky ponytail girl thought. Her friend decided to become friends with Amamiya, even though she knew about the rumors. From time to time, she would even comment on how these frustrated her to no end. Why, though? She got that Makoto was friends with the boy, but if he didn’t react to these, why wasn’t she doing the same? And those new rumors that were going around today were also worrying for the black-haired student council member. People never truly understood the function of the student council, so much so they complained a lot when it took action, but she didn’t think that the students would suddenly turn against their president because she stood up for one of their kind. And the grudge held against Makoto wasn’t small, apparently, as she had heard just now from these two...

‘ _This could lead to a big problem… I think it’s better if I go talk to Makoto-chan and hear everything from her mouth when classes end.’_ She thought as she went up to the second floor, only to see something that surprised her. Makoto-chan was talking with Amamiya in front of his class. Well, not exactly _talking_ , just one or two phrases and a lot of… standing there. Saying nothing after the before mentioned phrases. And, if her vision wasn’t fooling her, both would also blush from time to time. That’s… REALLY weird. Makoto never acted that way with anyone. And she never saw Amamiya acting that way, even though she didn’t see him do much of anything herself. Was there something between them? And with the weird rumors going around today, the only thing that would make the day even weirder would be if it rained.

As the bell rang signaling that classes would be starting soon, Momo Yaororozu saw the president and the transfer student bid their farewells, as she noticed by their expressions that both didn’t want to leave to their classes… but didn’t know how to continue their short conversation. As Amamiya entered his class, the onyx-eyed girl saw her friend just stand there in front of the door, lost in thought. After a few seconds, the president picked up her phone from her pocket and sent a message to someone. ‘ _So Makoto-chan is into Amamiya? Why would that be the case? I don’t know much about them, after all… Let talk to her and find out more._ ’ “Hey, Makoto-chan!” Momo said to the girl, who jumped a little from the sudden mention of her name and quickly returned her phone to her pocket.

“Oh, hello Momo-chan. It’s been a while. How’s your day going?” The brunette responded, having now recovered from the scare she inadvertently got.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking! How about you? You seemed lost in thought a second ago…” The spiky-haired girl responded with honesty and curiosity in her voice.

“Oh, I was just… asking about something to Ren-kun. It wasn’t anything major, though…” Her friend responded though it didn’t seem like she was telling the whole truth. ‘ _And she’s on a first name basis with him. They’re definitely close. But how much?_ ’

“I won’t pry into it, then. Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but there’s a rumor going around saying that you punched Neito. Is it true?”

“Yes.” Makoto responded with such bluntness that Momo was shocked. Who admitted to punching someone so nonchalantly?

After a few seconds of shock (and Makoto looking way too calm), the brunette asked: “But… why did you do it?”

“Because he was verbally assaulting both me and Ren-kun.” ‘ _That doesn’t seem like a reason to punch anyon-_ ‘

“He also slapped me.”

“WHAT?!” The first-year shouted, which caused some students to look their way, yet the two girls didn’t react to their stares. “He _slapped you_? How could he?!” Momo responded angrily, though more quietly as to not attract more attention.

“Calm down.” Makoto interrupted gently. “It’s fine now. I made him quit the student council on the behalf of assaulting the president. I also made sure he was suspended for a week.” The way the girl in front of her said these last two sentences made Momo feel pure fear. Makoto seemed to notice this, as she continued. “Oh! Sorry for using that tone of voice. I just get really angry when I think of Monoma…”

“I can see why. But, speaking of yesterday, did you hear the new rumors circling the school?” The mention of the word ‘rumor’ made the president harden her expression, which scared the younger girl. “There were some students who said he was the one who punched Monoma and you took the blame. They also said he _cried_ but was probably faking it. Could you tell me what really happened, Makoto-chan? I’m really confused.” The girl said honestly as her friend softened her expression and looked down sadly. “Oh, I’m sorry! I was too forward, wasn’t I? I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s okay. I actually like your bluntness.” The third-year responded. “Is it okay if we gather at the council after school today? I want to speak with all of you about what happened yesterday.”

“Of course! Want me to call the others?”

“I would like that. Thank you very much, Momo-chan.” The president responded happily.

“One last thing before we get to our classes: if you don’t mind me being blunt again, what were you _really_ talking with Amamiya-kun?” The question obviously made the girl freeze, though Momo wasn’t surprised by this.

After a few seconds, the red-eyed student finally responded, embarrassed. “…I asked him to have lunch with me today.”

“Well, I hope you two enjoy yourselves! I just hope you don’t freeze when you go and talk to him after the first period, Makoto-senpai!” Momo responded in a silly tone while going up to the third floor.

Makoto seemed to snap out of her embarrassment when she heard the tone her younger friend used. “What are you talking about?” She said with a smirk. “I never freeze!”

* * *

 

**Shujin Academy Rooftop**

**11:40 A.M. (Lunchtime)**

She froze the moment she saw Ren in the rooftop, spinning his phone his finger, sitting on one of the chairs next to one of the tables, which was covered with a red and white tablecloth. On the table were two plates of Leblanc’s curry within shiny white plates. Next to these were glasses of water and shiny spoons, one black and the other red. The advisor wondered how the boy prepared this so quickly, considering the bell had rung only a minute ago. ‘ _He must be really proficient if he did this before I arrived… wait did he do this BEFORE the bell rung?!_ ’ She thought before deciding to knock on the door after noticing that he was staring into nothingness with concentration. He jumped somehow (he was sitting down) and almost dropped his phone on the ground. She giggled at his clumsiness, finding it cute and then blushing a bit when she noticed that he was _really cute_ when flustered. Actually, he was cute almost all the time. ‘ _How did I never notice that before?_ ’ He just smiled at her clumsily before standing up to greet her.

“Hiya.” He said in a lighthearted tone.

“Hey there.” She responded in the same tone.

“…”

“…”

“O-oh, I’m glad you could join me on today’s lunch. We have a very special dish: Leblanc’s classic but delicious curry!” He presented in a tone that could rival Sojiro’s in its hominess, though it had some nervousness in it. Seems he got out of the awkward atmosphere as much as he could, huh? ‘ _I won’t let him be the only one, then!_ ’

“I always enjoyed Leblanc’s curry! It honors me that you thought of bringing some of it to me, Mr. Amamiya!” She responded playfully. “But why did you bring a tablecloth and silverware from Leblanc as well? We could just eat while sitting in the chairs.” She responded honestly. To her surprise, he looked down bashfully.

“Well… this is kinda dumb, but ever since Sojiro took me in, he taught me how to serve people really well, as if they were eating in their best friend’s house instead of in a café. I learned how he does this, and I like his method so much that I adopted it. I wanted to make you feel like you’re having a delicious lunch at Leblanc instead of just having lunch on the school rooftop, as it’s kind of a boring place. Especially since it’s you we’re talking about.” It was pretty obvious she was red in the face after the last comment, though less than normal, as she was thinking that ‘ _especially if it’s me…? What makes me so special to him…?_ ’ He looked up to her still bashfully, but now with a smile. “Told you it was dumb. And cheesy.”

“I don’t find it dumb, honestly.” She responded thoughtfully, with her arms crossed and looking down. “And I see no problem in being cheesy from time to time. I really like this, Ren-kun…” The brunette said, uncrossing her arms and looking into his eyes. “It does make me feel more at ease. Especially since you’re the one who prepared this…” She looked down after that, her cheeks as red as the silverware Ren brought. ‘ _Did I really just say that?! What the heck’s wrong with me?! That’s almost as cheesy as a cheese moon!_ ’

“It seems the cheese is spreading faster than I thought!” The glassed boy responded with pride in his voice, though he also slightly blushed at her comment. She just groaned and gave a light punch to his arm while he chuckled.

“Let’s just eat, please.” The brunette said embarrassed, to which the boy complied, guiding the girl to her chair and even pulling it back so she could sit on it. ‘ _Ren is being quite the gentleman with me lately. Maybe he picked some of that classiness from Sojiro… or maybe one of his personas?_ ’ He then sat in his chair on the other side of the table and grabbed his spoon to start eating. She did the same, grabbed a bit of curry and put it in her mouth with delicacy. The moment she felt the flavor, an involuntary moan escaped her lips. “Wow, this is good! The flavor, the texture, the spiciness… everything is perfect!” she commented to the unsurprisingly good cook in front of her. Said good cook was smiling at her, happy that his curry managed to make her happy. He saw as she almost gave up on being elegant to eat every bite on her plate quickly, but decided against it to savor the taste more.

They both ate in silence after the comment, with one sometimes trying to start small talk, but neither really knowing how to continue it, which would lead to, yet again, awkward silence. It seems the only topic they didn’t stumble over was the Phantom Thieves. After Makoto asked how they were in weapons and armor, Ren went full-on Joker and started talking strategically about every weapon and armor they possessed and what they could do with them. The girl, seeing that he was full business now, decided to enter her Queen mode and discuss tactics with him, such as how to effectively find and exploit a Shadow’s weakness without using too much of their stamina on attacks, while Joker listened and added to her strategies (like a strategy on how to get money quickly. They could use Pulinpa on stronger Shadows to make them drop money. She was hesitant to accept this at first, but then remembered they were Phantom _Thieves_ , they weren’t hurting anyone and the money would be used to fund their operations). After they finished their plates of curry, the girl decided to start cleaning up by getting the spoons, but the boy had other plans.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll do it.”

“No, let me help! You made the lunch and brought the cloth and spoons. The least I can do is help you clean everything up.” She offered.

“Nah, there’s no need, Makoto. This is a gift from a gentleman to a classy woman, understand?” He said with wavering poise while gently taking the spoons from her hand and said hand with a smile, guiding her to sit down in a nearby chair. “Just sit back and see how the Leblanc apprentice cleans up a table after a satisfied customer leaves!” he said smugly with his trademark smirk. She rolled her eyes a bit but decided to watch him cleaning up a table.

She saw as he quickly and expertly removed the plates and spoons from the table, putting them in a bag by his school handbag, which didn’t have Morgana today… ‘ _Maybe he’s with Ann or Haru?_ ’ After that, the Leblanc apprentice grabbed the tablecloth in its tips and connected them, making a triangle. After that, he connected its tips again to make it occupy less space and threw it in the bag, where it landed perfectly by the plates and spoons. She clapped at him, to which he bowed. It wasn’t anything truly spectacular, but seeing him do such a mundane task in less than 30 seconds with such confidence was just amazing. Makoto then noticed she couldn’t resume Ren into one word, as one word wouldn’t do him justice (though one that immediately comes to mind is _cool_ ). He’s cool in every action he takes, he’s level-headed, a wonderful person and always seemed in control.

Which is why she was so shocked yesterday when he broke down. She knew he was human, in fact, he was the most human person she ever met, but to see the lies get to him and see him let out a flood of pent-up emotions so helplessly was… out of this world, to say the least. He showed himself as a person that would never be swayed all the time, even in the normal world… but why did he do that? Was it to prove something? And if so… to who? The Phantom Thieves? His other friends? Herself? There was no need for him to do any of that to them, who knew perfectly well that he was the most amazing person in the world, without any doubt. This probably took a huge emotional toll on him, but he never shared this with anyone, not even Morgana.

But… nobody really did anything to help him either way, right? He never complained, much less told anyone about this. He just listened to the lies and accusations thrown his way and let them live because he didn’t want to bring any burdens to anyone else. He was carrying his own burdens along with everyone else’s and never seemed to hate it. In fact, he always seemed to like helping out others more than himself. Logically, he should have broken down MUCH earlier. But this was Ren-kun…

‘ _Ren-kun… you’re an extremely philanthropic person… You worry much, much more about other people and their problems than you worry about yourself. That makes you extremely dependable and likable, but you need to worry about yourself too. And if you’re not going to do it… then I will. I WILL help eliminate at least one of your burdens, no matter the cost, my dear-_ ’

“Earth to Beep Boop-senpai?” The phrase snapped the girl out of her thoughts. “This is not a good place to update your software, Makoto.exe!” Ren was waving his right hand in front of her face while also being really close to it. She looked at him with a mix of shock and embarrassment.

“Oh, sorry Ren-kun… I was just thinking about… something important.” She replied truthfully.

“Hey, it’s no biggie. I just thought I did something that made your mind fly away like accidentally press one of your Beep-Boop reboot buttons.” The cool boy responded with a tone of innocent mischievousness. He knew she didn’t like being called a robot, but there were times he couldn’t help himself.

“Oh, I’ll show you a reboot button if you say something like that again!” The ( **NOT** ) robot girl responded with angry playfulness while standing up. She couldn’t contain a mischievous smirk. She wasn’t going to hurt her best friend, but she wasn’t going to let him toy with her like that.

He got down on his knees, clasped his hands and said “Okay, okay I’m sorry! Please don’t go full-on Terminator on my butt!”

“Oh, I would never hurt your cute butt, Ren-kun. I’d probably just pet it instead of hurting it.”

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

‘ _WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SAY?!_ ’

How could she slip out an indecent comment like that one so automatically?! She was so red she was sure they could see the glowing red aura in the sky on the other side of the world!!

It seems she wasn’t the only one glowing like a lighthouse, as Ren’s face had a similar shade to her own. Oh no, what was he thinking about her right now?!

* * *

 

**Ren’s mind at that moment:**

****

* * *

 

Oh my god, is he okay?! He doesn’t seem to be responding!!!

‘ _Okay, calm down, Makoto Niijima. It’s all okay. That was just a… n indecent comment that slipped out of your mouth for some reason… i-it’s nothing much… you could tell him it was just a joke! Yeah…_ ’

“O-oh, s-sorry to be so b-blunt, R-Ren-kun, i-it was just a joke! Yeah… just… ignore my c-comment about your bu-butt…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

‘ _If this was just a joke, why is the awkward silence still here?!_ ’

* * *

 

**Shujin Academy, class 2-C**

**3:31 P.M.**

Ryuji was just sitting in his chair, bored. Classes were still going, but they were making him really sleepy. Why did he need to learn all this stuff? Really, where would he use a logarithm in his life? Or need to know about some samurai dude that killed himself in a mountain? None of that would affect his life. ‘ _Man, I just wish somethin’ different would happen… Somethin’ exciting maybe… Maybe something about the Phantom Thieves?! Then again, now that Okumura’s gonna confess soon, the only targets we could have are prolly in Mementos. Even though there aren’t any targets, we should go there to train every once in a while…_ ’

At that moment, the whole class heard the door knock. When Mr. Inui opened it, Ann was on the other side, looking a bit jumpy. She bowed her head a bit and said something to him. He looked over to Ryuji, looked back to Ann while saying something as she nodded. He then turned back to Ryuji and said: “Sakamoto, you’re dismissed for today. It seems you need to help Niijima-san with some paperwork.”

The said boy groaned lowly (even though he wasn’t annoyed), packed his materials and went for the door, feeling the stares and hearing the whispers of the other students. He knew what they were thinking: how can a delinquent handle school paperwork? _Why_ did prez call a delinquent to help? Either way, he didn’t care and just ignored them. He was REALLY curious about why Ann called him, though. What could she want? Well, he’d just ask her in a bit, since she’s right in front of him now.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Inui! And sorry for interrupting your class!”

“It’s okay, Ann-chan. Make sure Sakamoto behaves himself, alright?” She nodded, though the dyed blonde could tell she didn’t really agree with the teacher’s point of view since her nod was weak. “Then I wish you two good luck.” He finished and gently closed the door. The girl turned to the boy.

“Follow me. It’s important.” She said seriously.

The tone she used made him serious and worried. Was it something about the Phantom Thieves after all? She’d never interrupt his class just to “help Niijima-san with some paperwork”, as when they were looking for Haru, they went to the council room AFTER school ended. He nodded as she turned to guide him to the stairs. Both stopped near the spot he usually stayed after classes ended, as he looked to the sides and saw no one. Then, his curiosity peaked.

“Why did you drag me here, Ann? I’m already screwed in my classes, you wanna screw me over even more?” Ryuji asked annoyed.

“Oh, shut up! I’m also being affected by this!” Ann responded, angrily. “Besides, I called you here because of Ren. Look at him!” She pointed to the ground near the stairs.

When the runner did what the model said, he saw the boy she mentioned was completely out of it, not really looking at anything in particular, just looking into the wall.

“How long has he been like this?”

“Ever since the end of our lunch break.”

“What?! Uh, hellooooo, Earth to Ren?” The brown-eyed boy said worriedly. His previous annoyance now replaced with curiosity and concern for his best friend.

“…”

“Hey, Ren, what happened? You never act this way normally. Come on, was it something with Makoto?” The blue-eyed girl asked in a suggestive tone. Ryuji elbowed her lightly.

“…”

Even though he wasn’t reacting to anything right now, the mention of Makoto made him look red in the face.

“Okay, this is just weird. The hell happened to ‘im?” The dyed blonde asked, worried but REALLY curious.

“I dunno… seems like it had something to do with Makoto, though~” The natural blonde responded in a sing-song tone.

“Musta been one hell of a somethin’ to make him freeze him like this. I mean, this IS REN we’re talking about. Nothing freezes this guy!” The ‘delinquent’ commented puzzled.

“True, but it seems whatever it was that CAN freeze him decided to show up today. He didn’t even respond to the teachers in class!” The model responded.

“WHAT? But wait…” The boy continued. “You guys had classes with Ushimaru today, right?” Ann nodded. “Then how the hell is he still here?! The last time I dozed off in his class, he threw a freakin’ chalk in the middle of my forehead and threatened to send me to the principal’s office!”

“Well…”

* * *

 

**_Class 2-D_ **

**_3:08 P.M._ **

“ _Hey, Amamiya, answer the question!”_

_“…”_

_“Amamiya! I’m talking to you!”_

_“…”_

_‘Come on, snap out of it!’ Ann thought, worried about her friend. She turned to see her friend and saw he was STILL in that coma-like state._

_“Pay attention when I’m talking to you!” Mr. Ushimaru said, throwing a chalk Ren’s way._

_It hit him square in the nose. And he didn’t even react._

_To say the class was shocked was an understatement. First the rumors about yesterday, now this? What is going on with Amamiya these last two days?_

_“If you think you can just stare into space while in class, Amamiya, then you’re wrong!” Mr. Ushimaru said angrily, going over to the “delinquent’s” desk. “Go to the principal’s office!” He continued while looking over the boy._

_“…okay…” Ren finally responded, though really weakly as he slowly left the classroom._

_“Mph! He probably got a kiss on his cheek and doesn’t know how to react to it. This generation is never going to steer this world correctly this way!” The teacher mumbled angrily. Ann raised her hand. “Yes, Takamaki?”_

_“Mr. Ushimaru, could I go check him? I don’t think he’s feeling well…” She said worriedly._

_“Fine, go ahead. You’ll just be wasting your time, though.” The stern man responded. The blonde nodded, got up, bowed, grabbed her and Ren’s school utensils, placed them on each of their bags (it was already the sixth class; these would be ending soon and she knew if she was going to try and talk to her leader she would be at it for a while) and left the classroom with both bags in her hands, hearing her classmates whispering._

* * *

 

“After that, he just sat close to the stairs, where you usually are. I did the same and waited for him to say something, but he never did! After a while, I thought it was better to call you to try and talk to him.” The natural blonde finished.

“What the hell…” The other blonde commented, thoughtful. “Yo, Ren, the hell happened?”

“…*mumble mumble*…”

“What? We can’t hear ya when you’re mumblin’, dude.”

“…why did she say I have a cute butt…?” He said in a low volume, still looking down.

Now it was both blonde’s turn to stay silent.

“Uh, what?”

“Makoto.” Ren said, now looking at both of them with a serious and shocked expression. “Why did she say I have a cute butt?! And why did she grab it?!” He responded, exasperated. His friends just looked at him wide-eyed and screamed:

“SHE DID WHAT?!”

* * *

 

_Ren’s mind was still in the blue screen mode. Cute butt? Makoto Niijima, his crush and best friend, thought he had a cute butt? Why though? Male’s butts were plump and boring. Female butts were much better. They ranged from plump to round and-_

_“Ren-kun, get up! Please, say something! You’re making me worry!” Makoto said exasperated, trying to snap him out of his daze, as he was still kneeling on the ground. He vaguely noticed she was red, but then again, he probably was, too. He didn’t even feel his legs, as his mind was just trying to process what she just said. He couldn’t get to a logical conclusion. Why…?_

_He suddenly felt himself fall on his face, though he didn’t really feel it. To him, in one moment he was on his knees and the next he was on the ground on his face. He vaguely heard the red-eyed girl yelp, as she looked down and saw him hit his head and not feeling it (again). The Leblanc apprentice felt like the girl was still trying to help him up for a while, but with no results. He was as stiff as a rock. She stopped trying after a bit. The boy was still staring out into nothingness, trying to think but failing when he suddenly felt something he never thought would happen._

_He felt Makoto grabbing his butt. **With both her hands.**_

_That’s when his mind went:_

__

_The last thing Ren remembered before going into full zombie mode was a high pitched scream from his crush and the sound of a door slamming shut._

* * *

 

“Holy shit…” Ryuji said, looking at his friend. “So, you an’ Makoto are already on that level, huh?”

“Level…? What level? Butt level? What’s a butt level?” Ren responded, clearly confused.

Ann and Ryuji laughed at his comment, but then calmed down. “No, you dummy! Ryuji meant on a teasing level. You’re already grabbing each other then?” Ann said, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

“Teasing? I’m just confused. Why does she find my butt cute? It’s so boring! Her butt is much better than mine!” The glassed boy responded, still exasperated.

“Oh, so you really WERE checkin’ her out the other day! I knew it!” The dyed blond said triumphantly after laughing. “Ya know, you always present yourself as a gentleman, but you’re obviously still a guy. I KNEW you were lookin’ at her bod!” He continued with a smile and thumbs up.

“Wait, did you really check her out, Ren?” Ann asked. He didn’t respond. “Ren Amamiya.” She said, emotionless. The boy slowly looked up at her, scared. He didn’t even notice his mind cleared up because of the danger in the air, as he saw Ryuji was looking scared too. “Were you checking out Makoto when we went to the Metaverse?” She asked in the same tone.

“…yes.”

“…”

“…”

“Hmph.” The model said. “I thought you didn’t check girls out, Ren, but it seems I was wrong. Tell me: did you fantasize about her?”

“Aw, dude, that’s totally an unfair question! Of course he has, but no man wants to admit it!” Ryuji responded for Ren, worried for his friend’s safety.

“Shush, Ryuji!” Ann responded angry, turning to the blonde boy and placing her index finger on his lips. She turned back to the frozen teen on the ground. “Did you fantasize about Makoto?”

“…………………………………………………………………………..yes. ThoughnotthatmuchI’msorrypleasedon’tkillmeshe’sreallysexyandIcouldn’tcontainmyselfandIpreferherpersonalitythoughshehasanamazingbodyandbuttand-“

“Ren, stop.” The girl placed her index finger on his lip this time. “I was just surprised you fantasized about women too. Then again, I shouldn’t be, since it’s something natural for not only boys but also girls.” Both boys were just frozen, not knowing what to say. “But, there’s something really important I need to know if I’m going to let this slide.” She said seriously. “Ren, do you respect Makoto?”

“Yes.” The answer was immediate. Good.

“How much?”

“I respect her more than anyone else.”

“Are you just throwing that out your mouth or is it the truth?”

“It’s the truth.”

“Can you prove it?”

“I can’t with actions right now, but I can with words. I let her be the second-in-command for the Phantom Thieves. I think her way of analyzing a situation and turning our weak spots into advantages is much better than most of my strategies. If I could make her the leader because of her capabilities, I would. But I didn’t because I don’t want to place her in any more danger than she already is in right now just being part of our group. If anyone is to come after us, they’ll go after the leader. I prefer them coming after me than her or any of you.” The leader responded completely honestly.

“That’s sweet of you to say, but how far would you go to protect her and specifically her, Ren?” Ann insisted. Ryuji thought she was being too pushy, but when he saw Ren start to get angry, he got what she was trying to do. He just smirked, relaxed (he was REALLY tense for his bro) and watched the scene unfold, almost like an anime.

“I would take any pain from her.” The boy responded, angry.

“How far would you go to take away her pain, Joker?” The blonde asked seriously.

“I would die for her!!!”

“You would?! You're not just saying it because it is what you have to say, are you?!”

“YES!, I WOULD DIE FOR HER!!”

“Why would you die for her?!” She asked angrily while holding him by the collar. Ryuji was trying to hold back his laughter because of the glorious drama in front of him.

“BECAUSE I LOVE HER, GODDAMIT!!!” He shouted at her, extremely angry. The natural blonde let him go and beamed at her leader, while the other blonde also smiled. Their best friend froze. “Because… I love her…” He said in a tone that demonstrated he just figured out something really obvious.

The natural blonde just squealed, hugged her friend and laughed. “Oh, Ren, you should have seen your face!” She pushed herself away from him and looked him in the eye. “You know, you can be REALLY cute when you’re flustered!” She continued in a teasing tone. Said boy blushed.

“Dude, I gotta agree with ‘er.” This comment made the boy and girl on the ground look up to their friend, both with unreadable expressions. “Don’t you dare make it sound weird, okay?! It’s just that… sometimes you seem like a kid, dude. You have this sense of awe when we get into palaces and, judging by how you reacted to Makoto’s comment about your ass, it seems like you never dealt with these romantic and/or sexual feelings before, huh?” The glassed boy nodded, embarrassed. “See what I mean? You have had some insane shit happen to ya, but it seems you never had time to feel stuff teens normally feel. And these things are important in your life, ya know?” The blonde ended honestly. Ren just pondered his words. Ann got up and looked at her friend with wide eyes. “What?” He asked.

“Wow, Ryuji, I never thought you would be able to pull off a motivational speech!” She said happily while grabbing him in a fake chokehold and started messing with his hair. “Who’s a big boy now, huh?” She said in a teasing tone.

“Hmph, let me go, you crazy girl!” The runner said, trying to squirm out of her grasp.

“Oh, you’re complaining about being in the arms of a girl? Never knew you grew up so much in these last 5 months, Ryuji!” The model teased.

“Oh, that’s how you’re gonna play? Then watch this!” The teen responded. He reached out with his free arm and grabbed her thigh, pulling it so she would fall and let him go. It worked, as she let out a small cry. When she was falling down, however, he got up and grabbed her arm, pulling her close to him so she wouldn’t fall face first on the school floor. She automatically put her hands on his chest as she was being pulled up and he placed his hands on her waist. He looked at her with a triumphant smirk while she looked at him with wide eyes. “How did ya like that?”

“Are you crazy?! I could have fallen down and hurt myself, you perv!” She exclaimed angrily, freeing herself from his grasp. He just shrugged before blocking every punch she threw his way, laughing.

When she finally stopped after realizing no punch of hers would connect, she looked at Ren’s direction. The boy was still there, looking down again, contemplating. When she was about to crouch to talk to him, though, he jumped up to his feet.

“Ann, Ryuji, thank you so much.” The leader said honestly. “I have one question for you guys, though: could you help me get my feelings sorted out? I think ‘love’ might be a little too strong a feeling for only 5 months…”

“Why do you think that, dude?”

“Because 5 months is too little time to love someone! I don’t want to seem creepy or stalker-ish to her or myself… I’m even afraid I may be a bit crazy… I don’t know how I truly feel anymore… or even if I consider Makoto a friend or something more…” The frizzy-haired boy revealed.

“I know what you mean…” Ann said seriously. “I have had similar problems right before I awakened to Carmen. I didn’t know how to cope with the feelings about my body and how people treated me… I honestly didn’t even like my body back then…” She said, looking down.

“Ann…” Ryuji said.

She looked up to both of them. “But right after I got my powers, I noticed something about myself. It didn’t matter what other people said about me. And I noticed I was really lucky with my body. It still bothers me some people look at my body instead of me, but I can handle it. If I need to use my body to help people, I’ll use it, though I won’t do anything that I find uncomfortable.” She said with a small blush. “It’s kinda embarrassing to talk about this, but I think you needed to hear this, Ren. You too, Ryuji. We all have conflicting feelings about some stuff. I would never think or act this way if I hadn’t awakened to Carmen, and even if I did, it would have taken a few years instead of just 5 months. Do you get what I’m trying to say?” She asked honestly.

“…I think…?”

“What she’s tryin’ to say is that, since we went through life or death shit, we matured faster. I think.” Ann looked at Ryuji happily and nodded. He beamed. “Aw man, I got it right?!”

“Yes you did, you dummy.” She said with a smile. “But seriously, Ren, it wouldn’t surprise me if you DID love her. I guess our feelings are much stronger when we risk our lives every week, you know?”

“Yeah, I agree. I feel the same way. I would never risk my life before I awoke to Captain Kidd, much less risk it to anyone else. I was a coward before I met you.” The dyed blonde said while kicking the ground. “Now that I have an objective, it feels good to risk my life for you guys and other people. Geez, we’re really getting sappy today, huh?”

“I think so, yeah.” The brunette agreed. “I still have LOADS of questions, but I think I’ll ponder them later. Since the bell’s going to ring in 5 minutes, how about we start heading out to the arcade? I need to let my mind rest…” He finished sincerely. Both his friends beamed at him.

“HELL YEAH! TIME TO BEAT YOU IN GUN ABOUT!!!” Ryuji said REALLY loudly.

“NOT SO LOUD, DUMBASS!”

*SMACK*

“AAAWWW, YA DIDN’T NEED TO HIT ME!!!”

“MAKE LESS NOISE THEN! I’M ALMOST DEAF BECAUSE OF YOUR VOLUME!!!”

While those two were arguing, Ren rolled his eyes while smiling, pulled out his phone and opened the text messages.

* * *

 

 **Ren:** Hey, Futaba, want to come with me, Ryuji and Ann to the arcade?

 **Futaba:** What? Do my eyes deceive me? Are you really inviting me to the arcade?

 **Ren:** Uh, yes…?

 **Futaba:** It’s been ages since you invited me! ಠ_ಠ

 **Ren:** We literally went there the day before yesterday…

 **Futaba:** Didn’t count. You left running to talk with Makoto.

 **Ren:** I’m sorry, but it was urgent!

 **Futaba:** Meanie. Abandoning your poor little sister to die to a horrible monster! Still, I’ll accept. Just prepare to get your butt kicked in Gun About!

 **Ren:** Oh, we’ll see about that! I’ve been getting a lot better. I think I can defeat you now!

 **Futaba:** I sense your confidence! ~~Too bad I’ll have to destroy iiittt~~   ﾍ (｀▽´*)

 **Ren:** Oh, shut up!

* * *

 

**Student Council Room**

**4:05 P.M.**

As the student council members arrived at their meeting, they saw the president was already sitting down, waiting for them.

“Thank you for joining me so suddenly, everyone. I wanted to talk with you all about something important that’s been a recurring problem for a few months in this school.” Makoto said to the other members of the council.

“And what would that be, Makoto-chan?” Momo asked curiously as she sat down.

“The fact that a big portion of our student body creates rumors to damage the reputation of those they don’t feel comfortable around.” She continued seriously.

“Why did you arrange such a sudden reunion, though?” Shoto Todoroki asked. He was a tall teen for his age with a bowl cut hair and a serious aura, though gentle towards those he cared for. Since he had heterochromia, his hair was white and brown and his left eye was turquoise while his right was grey. “This has been a problem in this school for a while. I do agree that we should try to do something to change this if we can, but why do you only bring this up now?”

“It’s because my friend, Ren Amamiya, has been bullied verbally by these rumors for 5 months. Surely you all know about him and the rumors related to him, as some of them reach insane levels of absurdity, like the rumor that says he hides a bomb in his jacket or the one that says he is part of a demonic cult.” The members nodded. “I’m also assuming you’ve heard in some way or another about what happened yesterday.” They nodded again.

“I did hear some really weird stuff about yesterday going around the school…” Sora Tomomi answered. He had blue eyes and a laid-back aura, though he was also really kind and friendly. His hair was also spiky and brown. Sora was known in the school for helping others and not asking for anything back, as he was ‘happy with helping others’. “But I think most of that was exaggerated if it wasn’t fake.”

“I agree with Sora.” Kairi Hikari continued. She was a girl about the same height as Makoto with blue eyes and a kind and gentle aura. She had short auburn hair and even though she wanted to dye it to stand out less, Sora convinced her not to dye it. She was similar to him, though a little more self-preserving and held the boy back when he was being too reckless or fighting for someone that didn’t deserve said kindness. “Some of the rumors flying around were really bonkers. Like, for example, one that said that you punched Neito Monoma. I think some of these students just want to lower your reputation in any way they can, Makoto-chan.” She finished, confident. Makoto looked down.

“Well… I’m here to tell you all what really happened. You deserve to know the truth and why I called you here today…” The president said seriously, which grabbed the other members’ attention. Their leader never used that tone before…

She then told everyone the events that transpired the day prior, excluding the parts where she hugged Ren, brought him close to her chest and told him he was the strongest person she ever met. Everyone was silent after, just processing what they heard.

“So…” Sora broke the silence. “You DID punch Neito, but only because he slapped you and threatened you two…” He continued in a tone that showed he was a little bit afraid.

“And you also suspended him for a week…” Kairi continued in a similar tone, though she returned to her normal tone by the next sentence. “Well, I can’t say he didn’t have that coming. He was really bad at our meetings and always had this weird aura... like he was bound to do something bad one moment or the other. But I think you went overboard with punching him, Makoto-chan.”

“I agree.” Todoroki said. “If he ever decides to tell this to anyone, it could have a huge impact on not only your reputation but also your position here in the council. And not only that…”

“But it could also give you major problems outside the school, especially if he decides to tell the police.” Momo finished.

“I appreciate the concern and understand the gravity of the situation, but I have thought about this.” The president stated. “Even if he decides to tell the police, he slapped me based on a false accusation before I did anything to him, so I was just defending myself in the eyes of the law. Not only that, I have it all recorded if the need for evidence arises.” She finished, holding her phone up. The other members nodded solemnly, surprised with her craftiness. She was just happy she managed to convince Futaba to send her the sound file of her conversation with him (though she WAS upset the hacker was listening in even before her heart to heart with Ren).

“If you are sure that everything is fine, then we won’t worry.” The ponytail brunette said. “But you still haven’t explained to us why you gathered us here. I understand you wanting to tell us what happened, but knowing you, there is something else you’re planning, right?”

“Sharp as always, Momo-chan. Yes, I do have another reason. I wish to have a parley with the whole school. The subject will be rumors and their effects on people.”

“A parley about rumors? Why?” The bowl-haired member asked curiously.

“These rumors broke not only one of our students, but also my friend. And Ren-kun is not the only one who suffers from rumors. Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Haru Okumura and many others hear baseless rumors every day and just bear them. I have talked with them, as some of them are close friends of mine, and even though they don’t show it, this annoys and/or bothers them. This is already bad enough only with this verbal assault; imagine if the bullying became physical because of this manufactured hate towards them.” She paused seriously to let the others take in her words. After a few seconds of pondering, Sora (now not scared anymore) decided to speak up.

“I see where you’re coming from. One of the previous transfer students had a lot of trouble with rumors because he was a foreigner… so much that he actually transferred to another school in another country because he couldn’t take it. From what you told us, Amamiya-san has the worst rumors around him, but he always ignored them. I honestly always thought he was kinda disconnected from the outside world most of the time, which is why I never thought the rumors would get to him someday. But since they did, it just shows me that this is something much more serious than we thought.” The spiky-haired boy finished. “Alright, then! I think it’s a parley’s a good idea! Who else agrees?”

“Calm down a bit, Sora.” Shoto intervened. “I share the sentiment, but we must also consider some important details first. For example: how long would it take for us to prepare the parley? Would the school or the new director be interested in preparing it for us? And, most importantly, would it really change the students’ opinion on this subject?”

“What do you mean, Todoroki-san?” The president asked curiously.

“Even if we do make a parley and tell the students about the destructive effects of rumors in another’s psyche, would they actually listen? I don’t think they would understand or care about the meaning and consequences of their rumors, honestly.”

“That is quite a cold point of view, Todoroki-san...” Yaororozu commented. “But, unfortunately, I can see where you’re coming from. Based on how the students have been acting up until now, it doesn’t look like they care what their rumors do to the person they’re talking about. We just have to look at what happened to Amamiya-san. Even we did call the students out on their actions and tried to show them the harm they’re doing to these people, I think most of them would simply ignore us and continue to do what they’ve always done.”

Makoto just fell silent and started processing the information she received while looking down. She hadn’t considered that aspect. She wanted so hard to believe that she could make a change as council president that she hadn’t considered that maybe the people she was trying to change didn’t want to change, even if it was for the better. It made her extremely disappointed. She loved being a Phantom Thief to change the hearts of corrupt people. But was that the only way she was useful? Couldn’t she make a change without the Metaverse? If she couldn’t, she’d just be _useless_ …

Useless… as always, huh? She was useless to her sister. She was useless as a council president. She was useless _even in helping her friends_. She didn’t even notice, but she had clenched her fists in frustration and anger.

‘ _Right now you’re useless to me. All you do is eat away at my life._ ’

Did she eat away at the life of her friends as well?

Did she eat away at the life of her friends and didn't realize it?!

Did she…

Did she eat away at Ren’s life?

What if she was useless to _him_?!

‘ _Ren-kun…! I…! Am I...?!_ ’

“Maybe. Maybe not…” Kairi broke the silence and Makoto’s panic. “While your points are valid, I think you’re generalizing everyone at the school. Of course there will be people that won’t change, who will still keep spreading rumors and lies around.” She looked at Makoto, almost as if she knew the girl needed to hear what she had to say next as the president looked up to the member... “Unfortunately, it is something that can’t be changed. However…” The auburn-haired girl turned to the other members. “This doesn’t mean the parley would be useless. There would be a number of students that would listen to what we have to say. Students that don’t like rumors and students that never thought of the effect this would have on other people. I think it’s worth a try. Even if we change just one person… that would be good enough for me.” She ended gently yet firmly.

The council processed her point of view. She was right. It was impossible to change everyone, but why not try anyway? One person changed for the better would be a victory. This made the short-haired brunette calm down and it gave her hope. Sora was the first to agree, followed by Momo, then Todoroki and finally Makoto.

“So, everyone in this council is in favor of the parley?”

Everyone nodded.

“Then we’ll need to try to arrange it as soon as we can. Meeting adjourned. Thank you so much for joining with me today, everyone.” Makoto said, standing up and bowing to the other members.

“Hey, there’s no need to bow here, Makoto-chan! We’re all friends, right?” Kairi said sweetly. Momo nodded.

“It’s just that I felt like I haven’t been a good friend. I mean, this is our first meeting in a few months… I should have called you all sooner.” The president said sadly.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Sora intervened. “To be honest, we wanted to help you when Kobayakawa was ordering you around back in June, but he wouldn’t let us…”

“What?! He didn’t let you help me? Why?”

“He said you had everything covered.” Shoto responded. “We always knew you were really capable of anything thrown your way, so we didn’t check. In that aspect, we were also really bad friends, right? So we’re even now.” He finished simply and headed out, followed by Sora and Kairi, who bowed to their leader and left chatting happily.

Momo turned to the president and smirked. “Soo… did you freeze?”

Makoto was confused. What was she talking about? “Huh?”

“The lunch with Amamiya-san. Did you freeze?” She replied in a teasing tone.

The president was wide-eyed and her cheeks exploded with red.

“Seems like you did~” Momo teased. “Well, I won’t tell anyone your secret. I hope you manage to have another romantic lunch with him soon~!” She finished laughing while heading out the door, leaving the poor brunette frozen in the middle of the council room, remembering the events that transpired earlier the same day.

* * *

 

**Shujin Academy Rooftop**

**12:04 P.M.**

_‘If this was just a joke, why is the awkward silence still here?!’_

_Ren was just frozen there! She didn’t expect her crude comment would leave him so stupefied! She needed to get him up so she could apologize!_

_“Ren-kun, get up! Please, say something! You’re making me worry!” The brunette said, exasperated, trying to snap him out of his daze, as he was still kneeling on the ground. She felt her face didn’t want to return to her normal white color, preferring to stay almost the same shade of red as her eyes._

_He suddenly fell on his face. The red-eyed girl yelped, as she looked down and saw him hit his head on the ground with a loud thud. She tried to help him up for a while, but with no results. He was as stiff as a rock. The council president stopped trying after a bit, as she looked somewhere she never thought she would._

_She stared directly into Ren’s butt._

_…_

_Why was she looking there?! That was just rude! She shouldn’t be staring at his body that way, ESPECIALLY when he couldn’t react!_

_Though… he DID have a cute butt… it was so-_

_‘STOP LOOKING AT HIS BUTT AND THINKING ABOUT IT!!’_

_'Then why haven't you stopped staring into it yet?'_

_'Because it is really hard for some reason!'_

_'Or maybe it is because you don't want to stop staring into it.'_

_'That is definitely NOT the case!'_

_'Then prove it. Stop staring.'_

_Try as she might, she just couldn't stop. Every time she turned her head away, it slowly turned so she'd be looking at it again._

_'Why can't I stop?!'_

_'Because you don't WANT to stop!'_

_'Ok, who are you, why are you in my head and why do you think you know what I want?'_

_'Well, I'm you, I'm you and I'm you. Thought it was pretty obvious.'_

_'No, it isn't obvious.'_

_'Yes, it is.'_

_'God, why am I having an argument with myself?'_

_'Because you want to touch Ren's butt.'_

_'NO, I DO NOT!!!'_

_'Yes, you do. You are just telling yourself not to do it.'_

_'Wait a second... if you're a part of me... are you Johanna?'_

_'No. Just a different desire.'_

_'Then why are we talking as if we're different people having a conversation?'_

_'Because you're confused. Consider this as rationality,"you", versus desire, "me". You don't know which one to choose.'_

_'But I've always been rational. It makes no sense for me to suddenly have such a strong desire for something so... wrong.'_

_'First of all, it isn't wrong. It's natural. Secondly, yes, it does. Just look at Ren. And especially his butt.'_

_'STOP TELLING ME TO LOOK AT REN'S BUTT!!!'_

_‘Just look at it! There’s no problem giving into temptation just once, right? You know you want to see it…’_

_She dared look, and she found herself hypnotized by it. It was just so cute and small…_

_'How about touching it?'_

_'No... I shouldn't...'_

_'Come on... just this once! Give into temptation just this once!'_

_Without even realizing, Makoto grabbed his butt. **With both her hands.**_

_She let go the moment she noticed what she did, letting out a high-pitched scream and running down the stairs. Luckily, no students were in the hallways, and apparently, no one heard her. Good. She would need to go somewhere quiet to calm herself down and THINK ABOUT WHAT THE HELL SHE DID. She found the girl’s bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls. She still had about 6-16 minutes before she had to return to her classes. This would be enough time to calm down and think everything through…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_‘Why can’t I think of anything?!’_

_Suddenly, her phone buzzed, scaring the flushed girl. She picked it up and saw there were two messages from Futaba._

**_Futaba:_ ** _Yo, Makoto! Here's the super-duper secret audio that I'm not supposed to have, but have anyway! I'll delete it after sending it to you, don't worry._

_**Futaba:** _

_****_

_**Makoto:** _Thank you so much for this, Futaba! This is going to be really helpful. And please do delete it. Or else..._ _

__**Futaba:** _Yeah, yeah, I know. BTW, why did you want this audio?_ _ _

___**Makoto:** _I need to have it with me so I have evidence if Neito tries anything._ _ _ _

____**Futaba:** _~~Oh, smart! Then again, you ARE Queen.~~  _ _ _ _ _

_____**Makoto:** _Futaba!_ _ _ _ _ _

______**Futaba:** _Oh, right, sorry! Message deleted!_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______**Makoto:** _You know we can't risk anyone seeing this besides us, right? And we shouldn't use these codenames outside our project!_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________**Futaba:** _Project?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_________**Makoto:** _You know what I mean!_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________**Futaba:** _Yeah, I was just pulling your leg._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________**Futaba:** _Also, based on the time, isn't your class gonna start soon?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Before she could even properly register that sentence or fully calm down, she heard the bell ring again. She looked at the time. 12:20 P.M... ‘How have I been here for 16 minutes already?! I didn’t even feel the time pass!’_

_She hurriedly and awkwardly left the stall while sending a quick "have to go" to Futaba, going to her classroom and burying her head between the pages of a book she grabbed out of her bag so people wouldn’t notice the blood that was still flowing rapidly through her cheeks. It seemed to work, as people didn’t comment anything as they came in, neither did Mr. Hiruta…_

_Wait… Mr. Hiruta was the biology teacher…_

_That was the LAST subject she needed right now!!! ‘I just hope he doesn’t talk about humans today…’_

_“Okay class, today we are going to review the human reproductive system and the process of reproduction.” Most of the class snickered, some just looked bored and some were legitimately interested._

_Some were Makoto Niijima freaking out and not knowing what to do now that she touched the butt of her best friend and was feeling-_

_“This is such a fascinating subject to me.” The teacher continued. “How is a human being made? What moves us as a species?  Do we have a soul that moves our body, or do we simply have electric impulses that move our muscles?”_

_‘Good! If he just keeps rambling his philosophical thoughts, I’ll have time to calm myself down!’_

_“However, we must leave these questions for later, so let us do a quick review for now.”_

_‘NO! Please, keep philosophizing, Mr. Hiruta!!!’_

_“Let’s see… which student shall I pick to help me explain today?” The teacher mumbled loudly._

_‘Please don’t pick me, please don’t pick me, pleasedon’tpickme-’_

_“Hmmm… Makoto-chan!”_

_“Y-yes, Mr. Hiruta?” ‘Oh, no… I have a REALLY bad feeling about this next question…’_

_“Could you describe to us the process of how a human being is conceived?”_

Needless to say, this wasn’t an easy afternoon for the youngest Niijima sister.

* * *

 

**Student Council Room**

**4:22 P.M.**

“Why did I do that to Ren-kun…?” She mumbled to herself. ‘ _What an afternoon._ ’ At that moment, her phone vibrated. It was a message from Futaba. Oh gosh… what would the girl send to her at this moment?

 **Futaba:** Yo, Makoto, want to join us at the arcade? ٩(θ‿θ) ۶

‘ _Good, it’s just a normal invitation… And the arcade sounds fun!_ ’

 **Makoto:** Oh, sure! I’ll just take a few minutes to arrive. Is there going to be anyone else besides you there?

 **Futaba:** Heck yeah! Ryuji, Ann, Haru, Inari (don’t ask me how we managed to convince him) and…

 **Makoto:** And…?

 **Futaba:** Your favorite delinquent transfer student and leader of the Phantom Thieves, Ren Amamiya!    Ψ (｀∇´) ψ

Ren was going to be there. Of course. It is completely normal for the Phantom Thieves to gather on random days to spend time together, but even though she DESPERATELY wanted to talk to Ren-kun and apologize to him…

She really didn’t at the same time…

 **Makoto:** O-oh… I just remembered… I have some paperwork to take care of… maybe some other day, Futaba…

 **Futaba:** Don’t you dare chicken out, Queen! Come on, just because of your little crush of yours on him, you’ll just avoid him? SHAME

 **Makoto:** I don’t have a crush and I’m not avoiding Ren-kun! I even had lunch on the rooftop with him today!

‘ _Why did I tell her that?!_ ’

 **Futaba:** ಠﭛಠ

 **Makoto:** I-I mean…

 **Futaba:** No need to explain! The love train is too strong!

 **Futaba:** Alrighty, I’ll tell everyone you have some stuff to take care of, that you were really sorry and that you would do anything to repay us someday!

 **Makoto:** Wait, Futaba…!

 **Futaba:** I’m just kidding about the repaying part. You’re our friend. We won’t hold a grudge because you couldn’t/didn’t want to come today (because of personal reasons).

 **Makoto:** Oh… thank you. And I’m sorry.

 **Futaba:** Hey, it’s okay! Stop saying sorry and worrying already!

 **Makoto:** I’ll try to go next time, I swear! I really like going to the arcade. It’s just…

 **Futaba:** Stop. Just go home and relax a bit! You're really flustered rn

 **Makoto:** Ok, I will. Thanks, Futaba-chan.

 **Futaba:** No problemo!

 **Futaba:** Also

 **Futaba:** Ren sends a quick kiss to you <3

 

_Makoto is typing…_

_Makoto is typing…_

 

 

_Makoto is typing…_

 

 

 **Futaba:** Hellllooooo? Makoto?

_Futaba is typing…_

**Futaba:** Well, see you soon! Hope you don't die because of too much blushing!

* * *

 

**Shibuya Arcade**

**4:23 P.M.**

“Guys, Makoto won’t be able to come. Said she has to take care of some paperwork.” Futaba said sadly (though with a smirk, as she was standing with her back turned) to the others.

“Aw, that’s sad.” Ann commented. “Well, we’ll bring her here next time we come!”

“Speaking of her, I wonder how Mako-chan is at video games…” Haru pondered.

“She’s really good, actually, even if a little loud.” Ren responded. Everyone looked at him. “I brought her here back in June so she could expand her horizons. She is pretty good at Gun About, but she tries to dodge in real life, like doing so would make her character dodge. She also screamed a lot, so we had quite a crowd behind us as we got to level 3!”

“Huh. Never thought she had a gamer’s spirit.” Ryuji said.

“Guess we learn something new every day!” Futaba finished. “I bet you reeeaallyyy enjoyed that day, huh Big Bro?”

Said “brother” just quickly turned to the game screen, though the hacker could tell she had the desired effect of making him really red. Ah, it was just so fun to tease her friends and see their reactions! Speaking of, where was Inari? Looking around, she found him near the basketball machine, holding the ball in his hands, examining it. Was he seriously analyzing their shape? Whatever, any opportunity to tease Inari was perfect! She went to talk to him as Ann, Ryuji and Haru all looked smugly at Ren, who still hadn’t responded or taken his eyes off the game. His aim was also considerably worse than just a few seconds ago. Morgana (who spent the day with Haru to see how her classes were) just sighed deeply. He’d have to talk with Ren about this soon.

Both The Fool and The High Priestess had been through a lot emotionally these last two days. They also didn’t understand why they were so clumsy yet sometimes bold around each other and only each other. Both kept thinking about their relationship the rest of the day. Ren and Makoto were lost in thought (again) while the president’s actions were pondered by the council members.

Luckily, Sojiro and Sae didn’t notice anything different in the two teens (for now). This was good, because if they did…

Hoo boy was this NOT going to be a fun time.

* * *

 

**Operation: Dating Sim!**

**Futaba:** Guys, we gotta be quick

 **Futaba:** These two are getting closer by the second, even if they’re not together!

 **Ann:** Isn’t that good, though? You know, since we ARE trying to hook them up this would only make things easier for us, right?

 **Futaba:** Yeah, kinda, but that way it feels like we didn’t have any impact on them!

 **Futaba:** I want to feel responsible for the union of the century!

 **Ryuji:** Is that really something you wanna be responsible for?

 **Futaba:** Yupyup!

 **Haru:** I think I understand what Futaba means.

 **Haru:** Two of our best friends find love with each other because of the actions of their other friends!

 **Haru:** Making such a reunion would be quite thrilling!

 **Futaba:** HARU IS MY SPIRIT ANIMAL RN

 **Yusuke:** It still baffles me how much progress they made and how much progress they haven’t made at the same time…

 **Futaba:** Yeah, it is really confusing. But hey, seems this RPG’s at Merciless difficulty, so we gotta go all-out on it!

 **Ryuji:** Uhh, what the hell are you and Yusuke talking about?

 **Futaba:** Nothing that worries you right now, honestly

* * *

 

 **Futaba:** Inari, the others can’t know I am still connected to Ren and Makoto’s phones!!!

 **Yusuke:** I have not said anything about you still being connected to their phones, which, by the way, was something Makoto asked you not to do.

 **Futaba:** **Yusuke:** It still baffles me how much progress they made and how much progress they haven’t made at the same time…

 **Futaba:** “Why would Yusuke comment this out of the blue? Does he know something we don’t?” – Everyone that read this message, 1952

 **Yusuke:** You haven’t called me Inari?! This is truly a joyous occasion! (Why 1952?)

 **Futaba:** THAT’S what you’re most worried about right now?! (Yes, 1952)

 **Yusuke:** Yes. (Why?)

 **Yusuke:** Futaba, are you still there?

 **Yusuke:** I would like to talk to you about that painting you mentioned the other day…

 **Yusuke:** …

 **Yusuke:** It seems you don’t wish to speak to me.

 **Yusuke:** …

 **Yusuke:** Very well. I shall speak with you tomorrow.

 **Yusuke:** Good night, Futaba.

 **Futaba:** Just go to sleep already Inari

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to take the time in these endnotes to talk about one of the aspects of this story: the Boku no Hero and Kingdom Hearts characters. They're NOT the characters from their respective franchises, as they're just a base for different characters. They have the same name and basic personalities, but they haven't been through the experiences they have in their stories. This makes it so they are just representations of personalities that I wanted to put in this story.  
> I know this is lazy, considering I searched for a website that shows me the meaning of Japanese names and surnames, but I'm still not completely confident in my ability to create new characters from the ground up. I'm sorry if this makes you angry in some way and I promise I'll try to create new characters in the future if the need arises.  
> I also wanted to share the links I used for research in case any of you are curious about some new details I added in my writing!  
> EDIT: changed some sentences that didn't match the characters' personality that much into something more like them (see the messages at the end to see what I changed).  
> EDIT 2: fixed some grammar mistakes, added one important part that wasn't there before (how Makoto got the audio) and expanded one part I think deserved more time and dialogue (Makoto arguing with herself about Ren's butt). Since yesterday was my birthday, I wanted to fix some mistakes and add some parts I thought were missing for you guys as a sort-of "Birthday boy gift". I don't think this makes any sense (my will in this scenario), but I couldn't do it yesterday since I had to study for exams and left for a special dinner with my family. So I was one day late, but I did what I wanted! Chapter 3 is going well! (Edit made on August 9th, 2018).  
>   
> https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-Japanese-school-schedule-look-like  
> https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-01-20/.97769  
> http://bokunoheroacademia.wikia.com/wiki/Momo_Yaoyorozu  
> http://bokunoheroacademia.wikia.com/wiki/Shoto_Todoroki  
> http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Sora  
> http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Kairi  
> https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese  
> https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Shujin_Academy  
> https://www.jemoticons.com/en/bad-mood/  
> http://www.ign.com/wikis/persona-5/Mementos_and_Requests


	2. Should we plan this at all?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Operation: Dating Sim! is going to start to take shape after today's meeting of all the Phantom Thieves except Ren and Makoto. All of the members will be as thorough and make the best plan to unite their leaders!  
> Or will they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this?! Ian decided to make a chapter two instead of making a new story all together?!  
> YES! It's... not that triumphant at all, but I decided to listen to you guys (kinda) and made this a chapter two, as this also fits more with the mood of the arc of "Why are we so clumsy around each other?" (Special thanks to Toony for suggesting this to me! And if you're reading this, sorry I didn't do exactly what you asked, which was to combine both of these stories, but the other one's already been in this site for over a month).  
> Also, I'm TRULY SORRY for taking so long for this one! There was some time where I had writer's block because I had to do some research for some smaller stuff, and I kept playing Megaman Unlimited and Smash Flash 2 instead (PS: play these games if you can. Both are free and good!). Yesterday I finally finished the story and today I'm revising and posting it!
> 
> Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this chapter!  
> (PS: If you can, play "Missing You" from the KH 2.5 HD Remix game on the last scene. It fits really well and it was the song I was listening to while writing that part! For a heads up on where you should play it, it's right when you see the words "The girl of his dreams(...)")

**7:50 A.M.**

**Futaba:** Guys

**Futaba:** Guys

**Futaba:** Guys

**Futaba:** GUYS

**Futaba:** GUYS WHERE ARE U

**Futaba:** I WON’T HESITATE TO SPAM YOU ALL UNTIL YOUR PHONES EXPLODE

**Futaba:** ALRIGHTY THEN, YOU ASKED FOR IT!

**Futaba:** According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly.

**Futaba:** Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.

**Futaba:** The bee, of course, flies anyway.

**Futaba:**  Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

**Futaba:** -Yellow, black. Yellow, black.

**Futaba:** -Yellow, black. Yellow, black.

**Futaba:** -Ooh, black and yellow!

**Futaba:** -Let's shake it up a little.

**Futaba:** -Barry! Breakfast is ready!

**Futaba:** -Coming!

**Futaba:** -Hang on a second.

**Futaba:** -Hello?

**Futaba:** \- Barry?

**Futaba:** \- Adam?

**Futaba:** \- Can you believe this is happening?

**Futaba:** \- I can't. I'll pick you up.

**Futaba:** -Looking sharp.

**Futaba:** -Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those.

**Futaba:** -Sorry. I'm excited.

**Ann:** GODDAMIT FUTABA

**Ann:** THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK I HAD TO DELETE THIS STUPID AMERICAN MEME

**Ryuji:** And I STILL don’t understand what the hell this means…

**Ann:** It’s the beginning of the script of a horrible movie about a bee that falls in love with a human

**Haru:** Is it truly that bad, Ann-chan?

**Ann:** Yes. Just don’t watch it. You could watch something much better.

**Futaba:** Okay, everyone is here! Except for Inari.

**Futaba:** Of course, he’d show up late.

**Futaba:** INARI, COME OUT

**Futaba:** IF YOU DON’T APPEAR, I WON’T TAKE YOU TO THAT EXPOSITION YOU WANT TO SEE

**Yusuke:** What shall be our strategy, then? Should we deliver our full strategy today or should we extend it to a few days?

**Ryuji:** Wow, you must be REALLY desperate to see that exposition, huh dude?

**Ann:** Strategy? Yusuke, what are you talking about?

**Futaba:** Inari, Mona and I were planning how to hook up Ren and Makoto since NOBODY WANTED TO HELP ME (PS: Mona’s reading all of this. He’s just really quiet for reasons only known for the catyrdsuyagfiyasfiyagafuguifg

**Ryuji:** Rule #1: don’t call the cat cat

**Ann:** Rule #2: obey the first rule at all costs!

**Futaba:** MONA IS A MEANIE

**Futaba:** He says that his respect for you grew, Ryuji. Just a bit. He also sends a “hi” to Ann and Haru!

**Haru:** Oh, hello Mona-chan! I hope you are having a fantastic day! But, Yusuke, why did you decide to help Futaba-chan?

**Futaba:** Mona says his day is going well and wants you to come visit sometime!

**Yusuke:** As I have previously said, if Ren and Makoto both don’t come to terms with their emotions, they could both carry some heavy emotional burdens that will plague their hearts for a long time, if not for their lifetimes!

**Yusuke:** I cannot allow that to happen to either of them, as both are very important to me!

**Yusuke:** And, since I helped Futaba, she offered me a visit to an art exposition in Ueno I’ve been meaning to go to for quite a while now.

**Haru:** And why have you not gone there yet?

**Yusuke:** I don’t have the money to go there.

**Futaba:** So I offered him a ticket. There might be some weird stuff there I might like, too.

**Yusuke:** Do not call art “weird”! It is a disgrace to use such simple words like that one to describe these pieces!

**Futaba:** Whatever. What I wanna know is WHY HAVEN’T YOU GUYS BEEN HELPING ME AND INARI

**Haru:** I am truly sorry, Futaba-chan! I did want to help, but things have been quite hectic here. Father is still in bed and not responding much, so I have had to deal with the problems the company is facing.

**Futaba:** Haru, shush. You’re the sweet psycho angel we must all protect. I know things are rough for you, so don’t sweat it!

**Haru:** Still, I wish I could help… This is something I am quite excited about, but it feels like I am not helping much…

**Futaba:** Well, if it makes you feel better, you’ll be important in one of the parts, so just chill out, ok?

**Haru:** Okay… I will attempt to calm down. I promise I will do my best to help you all out!

**Futaba:** Speaking of all of us, Ann, Ryuji, what are your excuses?

**Ann:** Exams are coming up soon. I have to study so I don’t get bad grades.

**Ryuji:** Same

**Futaba:** So basically, your excuse is that you’re studying? Come on, I thought you could come up with something better than that!

**Ann:** Hey! I’m not lying!

**Futaba:** Yeah, you are

**Futaba:** You and Ryuji both said once in Mementos that when you try to study, you just play games instead.

**Ann:** …

**Futaba:** ANYWAYS WE HAVE SPENT TOO MUCH TIME ON USELESS BULLCRAP

**Futaba:** Let’s talk business. It’s already the Fifth and we haven’t done anything but talk that our time is getting shorter and shorter to get these two together!

**Ryuji:** I know this is something you're prolly gonna hate me for, but what CAN we do? I mean, sure, we could probably make up some crazy plan for ‘em, but NO WAY is this gonna go like a romantic anime or manga. Hell, they ain’t even really talkin’ to each other! They’re just super awkward when they’re together!

**Ann:** I have to agree. I managed to get some info out of Ren’s constant mumbling, and based on what I heard and what he told us, if they were awkward before, it didn’t even compare to how they’ll be the next time they meet.

**Haru:** Why is that? You never told us what happened, Ann-chan.

**Ann:** I kinda forgot to tell you, but, if we’re gonna hook ‘em up, then I’ll tell you.

**Ann:** Ren invited Makoto to lunch on the school rooftop. They both had curry but didn’t really know what to talk about. After a while, Makoto just started staring out into nothing and Ren asked: “Hello, earth to Beep Boop-senpai?”. She replied with a joke about beating him up, and he said for her not to go full-on Terminator on his butt.

**Yusuke:** That is an oddly long and specific story.

**Futaba:** Shush, Inari! Let her keep typing!

**Ann:** She then replied, and I’M NOT JOKING ON THIS: “Oh, I would never hurt your cute butt, Ren-kun. I’d probably just pet it instead of hurting it.”

**Futaba:** WHAT

**Futaba:** WHY WOULD MAKOTO SAY THAT

**Ann:** I HAVE NO IDEA

**Ann:** After that, Ren just froze and was in a vegetative state of sorts

**Futaba:** Holy crap, that girl bold

**Haru:** I would never suspect Mako-chan would say something like that so nonchalantly…

**Yusuke:** Hm… no, it wouldn’t work…

**Futaba:** INARI

**Futaba:** DON’T

**Yusuke:** But it would be such an interesting concept!

**Futaba:** S T O P

**Ryuji:** And that’s not all! The next part is even crazier!

**Ann:** Ren was kneeling when he made the joke. After his brain froze, he fell on his face. AND MAKOTO JUST WENT TO HIS BACK AND GRABBED HIS BUTT WITH BOTH HER HANDS

**Haru:** WHAT?! How could Mako-chan do something like that?! Would that not be considered sexual assault?!

**Ann:** I don’t think so… right?

**Futaba:** AHISDUASFGUIASFHAUSYFUHATFASOFUHASUFHAOSFOAHFUAUFGUAHSFOUAHFOH

**Futaba:** LET ME STOP DYING AND I’LL SAY SOMETHING

**Yusuke:** Now that would be a more interesting scenario… but the conditions can’t be replicated…

**Futaba:** INARI, I ALREADY TOLD YOU TO STOP

**Ryuji:** What’s he talkin’ about?

**Futaba:** Something that doesn’t matter! What does matter is that Makoto wants Ren. BADLY from what you told me

**Ryuji:** Wait, hold up. Why’re you saying Makoto wants Ren? Just ‘cause she grabbed his butt?

**Haru:** I have to agree with Ryuji. You know Konpai is commonplace among highschoolers, right?

**Futaba:** That girl is THIRSTY, Ryuji, Haru! The feelings of passion and love bloom into something much weirder and crazier!

**Ann:** Interesting comment, _Yusuke_. Now, where’s the plan, Futaba?

**Futaba:** if u call me Inari again I will hack ur pc so hard it wont be funny

**Ann:** Alright, sorry! But I think we’ve wasted too much time already. What’s the plan?

**Futaba:** Okay, so here’s the deal: we still have 5 days (if we count today) to help them get closer!

**Ryuji:** Wait, why only 5? The deadline’s only gonna be here in 6 days. Why aren’t you countin’ the day before the deadline?

**Futaba:** Makoto asked us to keep the 10 th free because she has something planned and wants us to see it

**Ann:** What could she have planned?

**Futaba:** Beats me. All she told me is that it’s something big, not Phantom Thieves level big, but big enough she wants us all to see it. Except for Inari and I because of obvious reasons (though she did say she’ll leave her phone there so I can hack into its camera for us to see later)

**Futaba:** Now it’s time for our plan to shine! Let’s put it with some music!

**Ann:** Hold on, Futaba! We can’t discuss the plan yet! Classes are about to begin!

**Futaba:** Aww, you cut my groove! Fine then, let’s meet up after school in… how about my room? You guys have already been there and I know Ren and Makoto will be busy after school today!

**Ryuji:** Well, sounds like a plan! Now I gotta go before the teacher gets here and decides to throw a chalk in my forehead. See ya!

**Ann:** It’s decided, then! See you all there!

**Haru:** If you’d like, I could give you and Ryuji-kun a ride to the hideout, Ann-chan!

**Ryuji:** No way, man! I like the offer, but I think it’s best people don’t see us together at school. Wouldn’t do much good to your rep, ya know?

**Haru:** I would not mind! After all, I’m just helping my friends!

**Ann:** You really didn’t get it… I’ll explain it later to you

**Yusuke:** Futaba, could I arrive earlier? I would like to discuss our trip to the museum…

**Futaba:** Don’t you have classes, Inari?

**Yusuke:** I do, but I have been doing well these last few weeks. They won’t complain if I decide to leave a bit early today.

**Futaba:** All right, fine. JUST DON’T MESS WITH MY FEATHERMAN ACTION FIGURES

**Yusuke:** That was over a month ago!

* * *

 

**Inside the train leading to Yongen-Jaya**

**4:43 P.M.**

Ann was explaining to Haru why it was better for them to take the train rather than a limousine to go to Futaba and Sojiro’s house while Ryuji played something in his phone (Ann could swear he was just tapping the screen to the rhytim of a song as he raged) when the train announced they had arrived at Yongen-Jaya. Ann and Ryuji quickly got up to get out of the crowded train and saw Haru was just trying to walk out of it. The blonde just reached out, grabbed her fluffy haired friend’s arm and yanked her out of the vehicle right as the door closed.

“Why were you WALKING out of the train?!” The model exclaimed, surprised.

“Oh, my apologies! I thought the door would remain open until all passengers left. Isn’t that how trains work?” The rich girl asked innocently.

“Wait… Haru… have you EVER taken a train ride before?” The runner asked astonished.

“Never! It is not the most comfortable way of transportation I have taken, as the chairs were a bit stiff and the train itself was tremendously crowded … but I enjoyed it nonetheless! It is a quick way to get from place to place! I should use it to go to school from now on!” She responded happily. Her two friends were surprised that their new friend had never taken a train before. Then, again, rich people WERE different from others…

As they made small talk, they reached the Sakura household. The gate was unlocked, so they all went in, took off their shoes and went up to the youngest member’s room. Ryuji and Ann felt a little nostalgia on their hearts, even though it hadn’t been that long ago when they recruited Futaba. The boy knocked on the door.

“Yo, Futaba, it’s us!”

“What’s the password?” A mischievous voice responded from the other side of the door.

“Password? You never told us about a freakin’ password!” The boy responded, annoyed.

“If you don’t tell us the password, we will not let you in. It apparently is the sacred rule of the Sakura Household.” A deep voice responded.

“I don’t understand you guys… isn’t the whole purpose of this meeting them getting in?” A soft, androgynous voice responded from behind the door.

“Well, yeah, but what’s the problem with having some fun?” The dyed redhead asked.

“We’re wasting time! We’ll only have one or two hours before everyone has to leave! Besides, you’re the one who wanted this done as soon as possible! So don’t complain if we don’t make much progress because you made a stupid riddle and they couldn’t figure it out!” The voice responded, annoyed.

“Such a grumpy, angry Mona! But yeah, you’re right. Unfortunately…” Futaba responded right before opening the door and letting their three friends in her room. They all heard her mumble something about her riddle after that.

The room was much cleaner than the last time they were here (excluding Haru, of course). Most magazines were organized in stacks, there wasn’t much on the floor, it wasn’t too dusty and the trash bags were gone. It still had dust in some parts, some computer magazines were carelessly thrown to the ground and it was STILL really dim, but it was a definite improvement over how it was before, back in August.

“Your room is really looking better, Futaba! Did you clean it up?” The model asked curiously, looking around. She sat on top of Futaba’s bed after she was done, as Haru and Morgana joined her, while Ryuji reclined against her closet’s door and Yusuke was looking at one spot next to the PC (while unintentionally covering it), contemplating in that iconic pose of his.

“Nope! While I was taking care of Medjed, Ren took care of my room! And he did a pretty good job at it, too!” The hacker responded cheerfully from her chair. She then turned it around, knowing almost telepathically what the bluenette was doing. “Unlike a CERTAIN SOMEONE that messed with my awesome action figures literally the day after!” She continued, eyeing Yusuke angrily. It was then everyone noticed the artist was looking at said figurines, fascinated, but the comment made him look to her direction.

“Was that really something so drastic you would hold a grudge against me for two months?” He asked, intrigued and annoyed.

“Well, yeah. After all, I never managed to put them back together!” She replied, turning to look at him, getting up and getting very close to him with an annoyed expression. Everyone in the room except Haru sighed, with Morgana’s being louder. There they go again…

“It is not such a complicated thing to do. In fact, while you were busy making a riddle to stall our comrades, I put them back in their original positions. Behold!” The grey-eyed said dramatically while looking down at her and then gestured to the figures with both his arms as if exhibiting an art piece. Indeed, they were back in their respective colors paired with the original poses. Futaba just looked at them surprised and smiled. The others were also surprised, but not because of the action figures, but because those two didn’t start arguing like always. In fact… it seemed they argued less and less as time went on. Huh. The only one that didn’t seem to react was Morgana, who looked more and more impatient as time passed.

She turned to the very thin boy and said “Thanks for putting them back together, Inari. As a reward, you can now mess with their poses anytime you want! You just have to ask first.”

“I accept your offer. However, can you stop calling me Inari?” He asked, hopeful.

“Nope.” She shot down quickly.

“CAN WE JUST BEGIN THE MEETING AT ONCE?!” Morgana shouted, making everyone on the room jump. They all looked at him. “Honestly, you guys are super unfocused! We’ve been here wasting time when we could be discussing what to do with Ren and Makoto! So could we all just focus and get on with it?!”

Everyone turned to look at the very angry cat sitting on the bed, which himself was looking at everyone with a disapproving expression, as the others were just baffled. What could possibly be making Morgana so angry? Sure, they KNEW they were unfocused without their leaders, but Mona never complained about it before. What could be making him so grumpy today?

It seemed that question would only be answered later, as the cat continued: “Now that I finally have your attention, let’s discuss our plan. Firstly, we won’t be able to make progress today. Ren is talking with one of his confidants and Makoto is in a meeting with the student council. That means we will only have four days to act. The benefit of them being busy today, however, is that we can plan even more to make sure that nothing goes wrong on the next few days.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ryuji said. “I get you know what Ren’s doing since you’re in his bag all the time, but how do you know what Makoto’s doin’?” The rest of the group nodded, curious as well (Yusuke was sitting on the floor next to the PC), except for Futaba, who, after sitting down again, picked up and showed them her phone screen. They understood the message and looked back at the grumpy cat.

“These details don’t matter at the moment.” The dyed blonde let out a ‘Hey!’ that was ignored by the wind user, that continued as if no one had commented anything: “Now, tomorrow we’ll try and talk to them after school ends. I’ll make sure to stay with Ren the whole school period to make sure I know what he’s planning to do in his free hours. Let’s see… Haru!” Said girl hummed a ‘Yes?’. “Could you go talk to Makoto after her classes?”

“Of course I could, Mona-chan. But what should I talk about?”

“It’s simple! Go up to her and say…”

* * *

 

“Hello, Mako-chan! I need some help with chemistry. Could you help me study?”

_She’ll probably respond with:_ “Well, of course, Haru! Let’s go to the library first, shall we?”

_After getting some help in the subject, you comment:_ “Hey, Mako-chan… I have another question for you.”

“Yes, Haru?”

“What do you think of Ren-kun?”

* * *

 

“Hold up, hold up.” Futaba interrupted. “First of all, your Haru and Makoto impressions are bad. Second, Chemistry? Really? Haru, do you have any difficulty in Chemistry?”

“Not at all! It is actually my favorite school subject, right behind History!” The psychic user responded happily.

Morgana was about to respond when the dyed redhead continued: “Third, asking for help with a study subject will raise Makoto’s suspicion, since Haru NEVER needs help studying. And fourth, why ask her what she thinks of Ren in the Metaverse? We all think that he’s a cool-looking badass! She does too, and probably more than us!” She finished quickly. The cat looked on edge.

“Ok, my plan has flaws, but we can fix them as we notice them! The important part is for us to plan something!”

“Why though?” The youngest girl questioned. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, a plan can make sure you don’t get your butt kicked, but what we’re doing is kinda open-ended, don’tcha think?”

The tomcat stopped and thought for a moment. “Well, yes, but we should still make sure that everything goes well, or else we could hurt them badly!” He said in a calmer but uneasy tone.

“I don’t think you need to worry to this degree, Morgana.” The artist replied. “We all know this is a touchy subject, but we will not hurt them. If any part of what we do comes close to it, we would just stop, would we not?” He asked the others, who nodded in agreement. “Besides, the plan we use most often is to not have a plan. It has worked in our favor for the entire time we have acted as the Phantom Thieves.”

“He’s right, you know!” The model agreed and continued. “It worked out so far, so why change it? Besides, the element of surprise makes it more exciting, doesn’t it?”

“Well… I’m not so sure… I’d rather have a plan…” The feline said.

“Dude, you’re freakin’ out too much! I get that we SHOULD be more organized, but we ain’t. Besides, we ain’t lettin’ life stop us from gettin’ to our goal, right?!” The runner said excitedly. The others nodded while the potential mouser looked unsure. “Well, that settles it! We’re doin’ it the Phantom Thieves way!”

“Pretty productive meeting! We decided we’re gonna do everything the same way we always do!” Futaba said. “Since it’d be a waste to let you all go so soon, wanna play something?”

“Wait a second…”

“Sure, I’m always up for a game! What do you have?” Ann questioned.

“Oh, I have something really fun for all of us!” The other girl said while walking backwards to a nearby shelf and grabbing a piece of cloth covering something. “I have the best console ever! Ladies and gentlemen, here lies an N64!” She said dramatically as she pulled the cloth to show them the game console.

“DUDE, YOU HAVE AN N64?! THAT’S AWESOME!!!”

“Oh my gosh, this is amazing! What games do you have?!”

“Well, my children, I have quite the collection! Mario Kart, Smash Bros., F-Zero X, Mario Party, Pokémon Stadium and, my personal favorite, Goldeneye!”

“Goldeneye!” The two middle school friends loudly and excitedly exclaimed. Their short friend complied, as she connected the N64 to the monitor, connected four controllers to it and started to connect the wires to the power plugs. Ann, Ryuji and Haru all sat down on the bed while Futaba moved her chair so she wouldn’t be in front of her friends, to whom she gave the controllers after connecting everything. Meanwhile, Morgana, who jumped to the floor when everyone sat on the bed, was looking down at it, thinking. After a few seconds, though, he heard a scratching sound above. He looked up and saw Yusuke, now standing in a very weird pose that reminded him of that Jojo thing Ren mentioned, drawing him in his sketchbook.

“Don’t mind me. Please return to your prior position.” He said as if he wasn’t distracting at all. How could he think such a pose WOULDN’T draw attention? Luckily, he sat down after a few seconds. Morgana just sighed and looked down again. Why were they like this? They did have a point since they never planned anything out when going into the Metaverse, but would the same concept apply here? Of course, there they risked their lives, which is no small thing, mind you, but this situation was about something that could affect their leader and vice-leader for the rest of their lives. It wouldn’t kill them to be sure nothing bad happened, right? Then again, as he looked to the monitor, he saw a polygonal man in a suit walking to the side while focused with a circle, then shooting the screen with “blood” descending from the top covering it. Everyone who wasn’t him or the artist drawing him was engrossed in the intro and the honestly catchy song of the game. But this wasn’t the time for them to be distracted! If they fail in the Metaverse, they lose their lives, but if they fail here, they could make Ren and Makoto’s lives much more awkward! He decided to call them out, but as he was about to do so, Yusuke said without even looking up from his sketchbook: “I don’t think it’ll work, Morgana. They won’t budge from that spot until they’re done with their match.”

“How did you know what I was going to do?” The human(?) asked curiously, amazed the person in front of him correctly assumed what he planned to do in such a short amount of time.

“I am an artist. I draw people and animals in every way my mind can imagine or see them. In the years that have passed since my beginning, one thing I have become particularly good at is noticing details in one’s expression that gives away what they are feeling. The position of the eyebrows, a slight upward or downward curve at the corner of the mouth or even a small expression twitch. Your first expression was one of contemplation since your expression was blank, you had a distant look and your ears were perked down. If we consider the conversation prior, you were contemplating whether we should unite our leader and vice-leader with or without a plan, or maybe you thought we do need a plan, but were wondering why the others don’t want to form one. After you noticed me, not much changed, but you became more aware of your surroundings, evidenced by your ears perking up. After looking to the monitor and seeing everyone with their gazes fixed on it, your expression became more determined, as your eyebrows furrowed downward and your mouth formed a thin line, with a small twitch downward after one second. That was when you made the decision to try and convince them again, but I knew it wouldn’t work, so I stopped you.” He explained calmly and never stopping his scribbling, only once to put his neck back into place (which made Futaba cringe because she thought she broke something in the game).

To say Morgana was surprised would be an understatement. Yusuke could analyze all of that in someone’s face AND correctly identify what they were thinking based off of that? Such a skill could be quite useful… too bad there weren’t many uses for it in the Metaverse. ‘ _Wait, focus. He correctly assumed what I thought without hearing a word out of my mouth. Is he doing it right now?_ ’

“Well, I would say I am doing it, since I’m focusing on drawing you.” The bluenette guessed correctly, which made the cat even more surprised. “And now, I’m done! Behold, Morgana!” He said as he flipped his sketch so the garu user could see what he drew. It was… an exact replica of him! From the general shape of his body to the first expression the boy described he made, to a lot of individual fur lines and even little scratches on his yellow collar he didn’t know were there. How could the boy in front of him manage to draw his amazing handsomeness, add some imperfections and still make it look so good?

“This looks really good, Yusuke! I’m a bit sad there are some imperfections in my handsome figure, but I’ll let it pass this time. Very stylish!” Morgana complimented. The thin boy looked at the drawing, then at his feline friend, then back at the drawing again, thinking. He then stored it in his sketches folder.

“Futaba, I’m going to get some water. Would you like some?” He suddenly asked.

“Nah, no need. Anyone else wants water?” She replied while not looking away from the very intense multiplayer match.

“I’m good, man. OH YEAH, I GOT A GRENADE!”

“Thanks, but I’m not thirsty. ALSO, CAN YOU STOP SCREAMING, YOU MORON?!”

“You just did it! Just let me be happy because I’m gonna kick your asses!”

“I don't need to refresh myself right now, but I thank the offer! Um… is the golden gun a good weapon?” Haru asked confused.

“WHAT THE HELL YOU GOT A GOLDEN GUN?!”

“FUTABA, NOT YOU TOO!”

“SEE?! I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE!”

“I’ll keep you company. I am pretty thirsty, after all.” The feline said. He then whispered to the thin boy: “I also want to go out a little bit. Their screaming is almost making me deaf!”

“Well, then, please excuse us.” Yusuke said as he opened the door and he and Morgana went down the stairs, through the dimly lit hallway that led to the kitchen. “You know, this reminds me of the time we came here to save Futaba. Do you remember how we failed miserably?”

Mona gave a small laugh. “Yeah, I do. We were so focused on finding her we didn’t even consider that this was Boss’ house. At least he didn’t get angry with us. I wouldn’t want to see Ren getting kicked out of the café…” He shuddered after that statement.

The artist, (obviously) noticing the reaction, asked: “Because you also would be kicked out?”

The second PT member stopped, as did his teammate. They were both already in the kitchen anyway. It was a clean, simple, normal sized kitchen. It had an antique-esque feel to it, but the house was that way, too. “Well… it’s hard to say… I guess it is that, too.” He said weakly.

“Then what would be the other reason for you to hate that scenario?” The bufu user asked while getting a glass and a bowl to fill with water.

The cat didn’t respond. The grey-eyed student looked behind him and saw he was deep in his thoughts.

“Morgana?”

“I don’t want bad things to happen to Ren.” He responded weakly.

“He always has bad things happening to him. We all do.” The bluenette said seriously.

“I know that. But I feel like it’s different with Ren. If he thinks he can help someone, he will do it, even if he doesn’t have the answer the person needs at the moment. And if that’s the case, he won’t stop thinking about it until he finds it. This makes him believe every second of his life counts because every second could be the one he finds the answer to the person’s problems.” The blue-eyed otherkin explained.

“I did notice that. He has helped me a lot since the day we met. I still feel a tinge of regret by asking for his help, but he insists. I would say that 90% of the time, he is the one that comes to me, asking to ‘hang out’. I’m still not sure why he cares so much. I don’t deserve half of the compassion he gives to me.” He admitted slowly with a tinge of sadness and regret.

“I think we all feel that way. I promised him I would keep him out of trouble as much as possible, to make sure he doesn’t exhaust himself, to make sure he had a healthy routine, even to make sure he went to sleep early so he’d have the energy to live his demanding life. Sometimes, he barely sleeps, only doing so for about 5 to 6 hours a day, sometimes even less. All because he wanted to help someone in the night or because he wanted to study, play a game, help Boss with the café or even wash some dirty gear we find in the Metaverse for the hopes of getting a good set of armor for at least one of us.”

“I have been meaning to ask this, but how many people receive Ren’s help?”

“Counting us, 18 people. And I fear there will be more if he keeps doing this.”

The ‘pretty boy’ (as Ann and Ryuji called him) stopped to think. After a few seconds, he asked: “Is that why you snapped at us earlier today? Because you don’t want him to suffer from an ‘awkward atmosphere’, which would lead to sadness, with the one he has feelings for?”

“You’re on the mark again. As I said, I think he already has too much on his hands. If we can make this one less thing for him to worry about, it’ll not only make me happy, but it will also make him and Makoto happy. She’s important to me and also has a lot to take care of; the student council, the strategies of the Phantom Thieves, studying for her entrance exams… If Ren wasn’t a gentleman and helped her with that, too, she would have also broken a long time ago.”

“That has also been on my mind. After he let his feelings about the rumors clear, he has not talked to us about it again. I fear he still has not taken Makoto’s words to heart due to his busy life. And both are confused about their feelings. If we can get a moment of peace for both of them, would they think about their predicament?” The tall boy asked.

The black and white cat thought for a moment. “I think so. If we manage to give them a moment of silence and give them seeds of this topic, they should think about it.” He said as Yusuke placed the bowl with water in front of him.

“Then let me help you. We are planning to unite them before the deadline, correct?” The garu user nodded and decided to drink the water on the bowl in front of him. “Then I shall gladly help! I could talk to them on Saturday or Sunday, as those will be the days I will have the freest time and I will have finished my school project. And those will probably be the days they will have the most peace on their week.”

“That could work… but are you going to go talk to them alone?”

“Well, this is something I have never done before, so it should help broaden my horizons.”

“Oh yeah, the _only reason_ you joined the Phantom Thieves, huh?”

“Originally, yes. Now, it is that and helping out my friends.”

“Huh. So now you’re not just an egocentric, you’re an egocentric that cares about others?”

“Why, yes. It is precisely the case.” The boy said with a smirk.

“Don’t these two ideologies butt heads?” The cat asked curiously.

“Yes, they do. Which is why I am very e _goat_ centric!” He replied and started to laugh loudly, while Morgana just groaned. Three other groans and a giggle also rang through the kitchen.

“GOD, THAT PUN WAS AWFUL INARI” Futaba said loudly, making the two people present jump. They turned their heads to the door and found that the rest of the group was there, listening to them. “You know, you WERE gonna get cute points, but that pun made you lose them and gain lame points instead!”

“I still think you should give the points to him, Futaba.” Haru said sweetly. “He just said he cares about us more than he lets us on and the pun was not that bad. It was quite funny, actually!”

“No can do. Puns are the bane of my existence, Haru.” She replied, crossing her arms and looking away from everyone, pretending to be smug, but coming off as dramatic.

“I don’t think that’s the most important part right now.” Morgana said. “When did you guys get here?”

“Well, we all thought you were takin’ too long to get water and we all got thirsty, so we decided to come here. We heard you ever since Monamona said why he snapped at us.” Ryuji said. “Dude, we all feel that way too. Doesn’t mean you need to get angry.”

“I was angry because your actions are lazy. You make it seem like there are no stakes if we fail, while the stakes are quite high here!” The otherkin explained. “If we fail, Ren and Makoto will both have messy feelings and won’t be able to think straight for a long time! This would not only trouble their personal lives, but also our Phantom Thieves missions!”

“Dude, you’re gettin’ the wrong idea.” The dyed blonde said. “Believe me, I fell in love a lot. Not even once I got the girl.”

“Well, you fall for almost every girl, so that isn’t surprising.” Ann interrupted.

He sighed. “You’re right. I do fall for a lot of girls.”

The room became silent after that. Ryuji finally admitted something that big about himself? What was happening lately with everyone?

“I know, I know. Surprisin’. ‘Ryuji admitted he is a woman chaser!’ Well, yeah. No use hiddin’ that anymore.” He continued honestly. “But that’s not the point. Here’s what I’ve been tryin’ to say: if you fail, you get over it. You accept you never had a chance or that you had one, screwed up, and you move on. I don’t think you’re tryin’ to get them together because you’re scared they’ll never get over it. I think you’re tryin’ to get them together because you think they’re a perfect match.” He concluded, looking directly into the cat and the artist to make sure they understood the message.

Morgana was shocked, as was the rest of the room. “I thought only Yusuke was supposed to read minds… and you even made my own feelings clear on the case.” He said more to himself than anyone else, but in a volume everyone heard. “I guess you’re right. I think they are a perfect match. Both are smart, charming, good-looking and awesome. They make each other _happy_.”

“Well, we’re on the same boat, Monamona. It’s so obvious they’re perfect for each other. But we ain’t worried because they’re gonna be together sooner or later. Didn’t you notice? When we ran into the council room, she had his head on her chest, tryin’ to comfort him, almost like a mom or a lover.”

“Wait, what?!” Ann exclaimed. “Really?! I didn’t notice that!”

“Can’t say I saw that too.” Morgana agreed.

“Me neither. Are you sure, Ryuji-kun?” Haru asked curiously.

 “Oh, come on! Both jumped the moment we got there and both were on the ground. What did you think they were doin’? Playin’ cards?”

“Why would they be playing cards? This supposition makes no sense, Ryuji.” Yusuke commented.

“Oh, THAT’S what you focus on?!”

“Anyway, that looks to be the case!” Futaba interrupted. “Okay, here’s my suggestion: Mona, you said Big Bro always helps someone, yes?”

“Yes. Now that I think about it, he will probably speak to someone tonight, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night.”

“Alrighty, then! Let’s take tomorrow to plan stuff out!” She suggested excitedly.

“Hold on. Didn’t you say we DIDN’T need a plan?” Ann asked, putting her hands on her hips, suspicious of the sudden change in attitude.

“Well, yeah. Not to unite them, we don’t. But we do need one to make them have some peace and quiet. That’s the whole issue, right?” She asked, to which Morgana and Yusuke nodded. “Then let’s do it tomorrow! That way, we can change the RNG to be in our favor!”

“Um… what does that mean, Futaba?” The fluffy haired girl asked.

“She wants to make a plan that will work no matter what happens.” The bluenette explained.

“How do you know what that means?” The wind user asked.

“Futaba has been sending me way too many video game phrases and their meanings. RNG means ‘Random Number Generator’, which would mean she wants to make sure no detail goes unnoticed and we account for all possibilities. Am I correct?”

“You know what, you just gained back those cute points and now you get cool points too.”

“Does that mean you will let me do puns when you’re around?”

“No.”

“Then it’s decided!” Morgana interrupted. “I’ll talk to Ren tonight and tomorrow we gather here to prepare their break! I’ll leave Makoto to you, Haru!”

“Leave it to me! Though… do I need to ask her for help with math?”

“No need. You can make something up on the spot.”

“Then I am ready!”

Ryuji threw his fist high into the air before shouting “LET’S DO THIS, PHANTOM THIEVES!!!”

“I TOLD YOU, NOT SO LOUD!” The natural blonde screamed back.

* * *

 

**Café Leblanc**

**6:32 P.M.**

The bell rang, signaling another customer had just arrived. However, since it was 6:32 P.M., Sojiro knew exactly who it was without even looking. “Ah, you’re back.” He greeted as usual.

“Hey, Boss!” Ren said happily but in a tired tone as he walked in with his school bag over his shoulder. It seemed smaller today, yet the ‘old’ man couldn’t figure out why. “How was business while I was gone?”

“A little better than when you were here.” He responded cockily. “But people are saying your curry is almost as good as mine and that they’d like to try it sometime.”

“Well, that just means you taught me well.” The boy concluded.

“Yeah, maybe a bit TOO well…” The café owner said jokingly, making both men chuckle. “Still, I’d like it if you could help me one of these days. My costumers like talking to you.”

The persona user thought for a bit with his right hand on his chin. “I think I’ll be free Sunday, as I have some stuff to do tomorrow, Friday and maybe on Saturday.”

“Good. Well, go wash up. Dinner’s almost ready.” Boss said happily. The frizzy-haired boy nodded and went up the stairs. While finishing their curry, Futaba arrived with the cat on her shoulder. So that's why the bag looked smaller today.

“Hey, Sojiro! How’s it hanging?” She asked happily while Morgana meowed.

“Everything’s okay here. I’m finishing the curry as Ren just arrived. Wanna join us?” He offered. The adoptive daughter grinned at him.

“Well, duh. No curry beats yours! But…” She sniffed, almost like a cartoon character, trying to smell the curry in the pot better, as the aroma spread through the whole café. “It smells different. Did you change some of the ingredients?”

“Yes, I did change one of the ingredients. Can’t let you guys get sick of my curry, right?” The man said smugly. His daughter nodded, as did the cat on her shoulder. “By the way, why’s he on your shoulder? Did he decide to become a parrot all of a sudden?”

Said ‘parrot’ just meowed a lot (an action that made the middle-aged man almost swoon) while the girl laughed. “I don’t think he likes being compared to a bird, Sojiro.” She translated. “I think he just likes being a cat.” She teased, which made said animal hiss at her. “Well then, if you’re not a cat, then what are you? Find out in the next episode of ‘Mona’s Bizarre Adventure!’”

“So Mona’s having his existential crisis again?” Ren said coming down the stairs wearing jeans, a black T-shirt underneath a white shirt and his ever present bag. “Are you gonna start saying ‘You thought I was a simple cat, but it was me, MONA!’ to everyone while stopping time? Oh wait, that’s right, you can’t speak. Or stop time.” He continued smugly, to which the wind user stuck his tongue out to the boy before turning his head away. The grey-eyed man just looked baffled.

“It still amazes me how human he acts. Oh, the curry’s almost done. Go on, you two, sit down and prepare yourselves for a special curry.” The chef announced proudly. The two teenagers nodded, with the girl first putting the cat on the floor before joining her brother on the counter as both were extremely curious about the changes their dad made to the dish. After taking it out of the pot, the café owner placed the rice and curry on their plates with intense care, taking as much care as if he were taking care of a child. He then placed the plates and glasses of water in front of them.

“Oh, it smells so good! And different!” The hacker said happily before noticing something important. “Sojiro, aren’t you gonna eat with us?”

“Oh, I already ate. No need to worry about me. Go on; try it before it gets cold.” He assured calmy.

“If you say so… But if you get hungry, I ain’t letting you get any share from me, got it?” She teased, to which both men gave a small laugh. She proceeded to fill her spoon and take a bite. ‘ _As always, it’s really go-HOLYCRAPIT’SSPICYASHELL!!!_ ’ She coughed and drank her glass in one gulp, trying to shoo away that burning feeling in her throat that felt almost as bad as learning a boss attack pattern but still not being able to defeat it. After a few seconds of just waiting for the feeling to go away, she felt it was time to prove to that curry who was boss and took another bite. The curry won again.

“Let me try it.” Ren said, a little afraid, but determined. He filled his spoon, closed his eyes and took a bite. His sister looked at him, concerned, as she knew he just had activated his Third Eye to make sure he tasted the curry as best as he could. He swallowed it and waited a bit. No reaction. He then took a glass of water. Still no reaction. “Sojiro, I think it might taste good, but I’m not sure…”

“What do you mean, you’re not sure?” He asked confused.

“I think the pepper was too spicy. It made my mouth a hostage and won’t let me feel the other tastes!” The brunette exclaimed dramatically but sincerely. “I think you put too much pepper here.”

“No, I put the usual amount.” The chef said. He then mumbled, “Was the Ogon pepper a bad idea?”

“YOU PUT OGON PEPPER IN THIS?!” His daughter said. “Now I know why I'm almost dead.”

“I wanted to try out some new combinations so my costumers wouldn’t get sick of it. Some of them actually said my curry was too mild and that they’d like a spicier version. I guess I shouldn’t have given the ogon pepper one to you guys.” He explained.

“You think?” The dyed orange-haired girl said. “Still, I bet SOMEONE out there will enjoy this… And that person’s not me. Sorry, Sojiro.”

“I think this curry has potential, but you need to change the quantity of the pepper. Maybe if you mix it with something to give it a different texture…” The glassed boy suggested. “I wish I could help more, Sojiro, but I have to go.”

“Alright. Just stay safe out there, okay?” The dark-haired man advised, to which the teenager nodded.

“Hey, are you going to the station?” The navigator asked.

“Yeah, I need to go to Kanda to talk and train with Hifumi. I’m so close to beating her! I just need to figure out her strategy so I can counter it… Her Eternal Abyss Yagura Gate really DID turn the board to hell…” He commented while shuddering. His sister and guardian looked confused and wondered how he remembered that complicated name. “Either way, why do you ask?”

“I wanna come with you. There’s a store I wanna go to in Central Street.” She said simply. He looked uneasy, as did Sojiro.

“Do you have anyone to go with you?” The café owner asked worriedly.

“Well, not yet, but I think one or more of our friends are still there. I’ll go with one of them! Maybe Ryuji, or Ann, or Inari!” The dyed redhead responded cheerfully. Both guys looked at each other and shrugged.

“Then let’s get going. Just don’t forget to text one of them to wait for you at the station, okay?”

“Alrighty! Let’s go out there and explore!” The hacker announced while raising her raised fist. Her family sweatdropped. “Oh, and don’t forget to bring Mona! He’ll probably want some sushi!”

The moment those words left her mouth, they all heard a loud meow as a flash of black jumped into the Phantom Thieves’ leader bag and stuck his head out excitedly, while the humans laughed at his cuteness.

* * *

 

**Niijima Apartment**

**6:33 P.M.**

“Sis?” Makoto asked as she opened the door to their apartment. No response. The lights were off before she arrived and no sound could be heard. Good! Sis was late today, but so was she. The meeting took longer than she had planned, making her arrive an hour later than she planned, but sis usually arrived at around 6:30. The Phantom Thieves’ vice-leader took off her shoes, made her way to her room, dropped off her bag on her desk and decided she needed a bath. She prepared some comfy pajamas and made her way to the bathroom. When she opened the door, however, steam leaked through the gap. Confused, she looked inside and saw a silhouette behind the shower curtain… meaning that Sae had already arrived and was taking a bath. ‘ _Sis wasn’t late after all… I need to make our dinner! She must be so tired and hungry… dammit, should I tell her I’m here? Or should I just leave for the kitchen?_ ’

As she pondered, however, her sister’s voice rang from behind the shower curtain making the younger sister jump. “Is that you, Makoto?”

“Y-yes, sis!”

“You’re late.” She stated matter-of-factly and peered her head out of the curtain. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. I had a meeting with the student council members today. We discussed a lot-“

“Hold on one second.” The young woman intervened. “I’m almost done here. Can you start preparing the ingredients for dinner? I’ll continue what you start while you take a bath. How about it?” She asked. The red-eyed teen, a little sad her sister didn’t hear about her day, thought for a bit, then nodded.

“Alright, that seems good. I’ll prepare everything. I’m planning a simple dinner today, so what do you want to make?” The nuclear-user proposed and asked.

“I think I can make the rice with nori, ohitashi, sashimi and sakura tea. Is that okay with you?”

“Absolutely. I’ll make miso soup, prepare the tsukemono and cookies. Just let me know when you finish your bath, okay sis?” The advisor proposed and asked, to which the prosecutor nodded. Said advisor left her pajamas in the bathroom and went to the kitchen. She started preparing all the ingredients she and her sister would need, like rice, flour, water, sakura leaves among others. As she picked them up and started the process of making the food, however, she started to think about her day. This led to her thinking about the successful meeting, which put a smile on her face. ‘ _Things are going well. Monday is the perfect day for our parley! I hope Ren-kun gets a little weight off his back after this…_ ’

She slowed her movements down. Ren. She was doing this for Ren-kun. Yet she didn’t tell him about her plan. Why? Why couldn’t she talk to him? So many times today, she picked up her phone to send a message to him, but her mind kept hitting a wall. What would she tell him? ‘Hey, I’m going to make a parley for you, so be prepared!’? It wouldn’t make any sense for her to warn him, as she did want this to be a surprise. But she wanted to talk to him so badly… Oh, right, the water. She picked up the kettle and poured the water on the teapot, along with the leaves. The movement was simple, yet she did it with grace. Almost as much grace as Ren’s acrobatic maneuvers in the Metaverse. He looked so cool there. He jumped almost as high as a cat, ran as fast as a cheetah, had the agility of an acrobat and never lost that cocky smile of his. She pictured him in her mind with that black, ankle-length tailcoat, red gloves, and confident nature, leading the team from a flying bank to the distorted subway stations of Mementos, all the while being the image of pure determination and kindness. If anyone asked for a break, he would give the whole team a break, give the person who asked for such break some water so they’d rest up and talk to everyone. It could be any topic, varying from the heist to idle chitchat. Come to think of it… his conversations with her were a little different. Sure, he did talk to her about smaller stuff, like Buchimaru-kun (she was VERY HAPPY he also enjoyed the show), but he also talked to her a lot about the team in general and what he thought of everyone on a personal level. This would lead to both of them talking on a corner of a safe room as the others chatted amongst themselves before noticing the leader and vice-leader were alone, giggle or chuckle and carry on what they were doing. She wasn’t dumb. She _knew_ what they meant with those giggles and chuckles. But… if she did go for it… if she did try and start a relationship with Ren-kun… would they be happy? Would she be able to be a good girlfriend to him? She was certain he’d be the best boyfriend anyone could ask for, but she wasn’t certain about herself. There were times she noticed she preferred being alone when she had the option to talk to someone. Even during certain meetings, she’d prefer to read a book or check requests on the Phan-site rather than talk to any of her friends. Most of the time, they were the ones that would talk to her. If she did start dating Ren-kun… would she be that way, too?

“Makoto?” Sae said from the bathroom, making her sister have a second unintentional scare that night. “I’m almost done here. Are you done with your part?”

She panicked a bit when she noticed she had spilled a bit of tea on the sink while lost in thought, but noticed she could make the soup and cookies quickly if she focused. The tea was ready, anyway. “A-almost!” The red-eyed girl commented with a small crack and stutter to her voice, but her sister didn’t seem to notice, as she heard the bathroom door close. Back to the soup. She still had a bit of water from the kettle she could use, so she poured it on the saucepan with two teaspoons of dashi granules. After a few minutes, she reduced the heat, whisked in three spoons of miso paste and stirred the diced tofu she had bought earlier on the way back home. She sliced the two green onions into small pieces and added them to the mix. She stirred for a few minutes and saw the soup was complete. Now all she needed to make were the cookies. She had already prepared the ingredients, so she quickly started mixing the vegetable oil and sugar in a bowl. After that, she added the wheat flour onto it, along with some cocoa, and mixed it until it formed a ball. Satisfied with the dough, she used two spoons to make 15 small round cookies. She was done! She only had to put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. As she was about to make that, however, she heard the grey-haired prosecutor’s voice behind her.

“Those look good. I must say, you are quite talented at this.”

“Sis! You’re already done with your bath?” The youngest Niijima asked turning around, seeing her sister was wearing a black pajama.

“Yes… I thought me standing behind you in my pajamas would tell you that.” She stated teasingly, which made her sister squirm a bit in embarrassment. “I’ll take it from here. Go take your bath.”

“Alright, sis. Don’t you want any help, though?” The brunette asked.

“There’s no need, you’ve already done enough. Moreover, you look tired. Go already!” The red-eyed young woman said with a smile. The teenager nodded and left for the bathroom, feeling a small pang in her heart. This was almost like how they were before dad died. There was only one thing missing: it still felt like something was always more important to sis than her. She entered the bathroom, stripped and entered the shower slowly. Making sure the water was lukewarm she wanted to think again. But the only thing that came to her mind were images. Some of her sister when they were younger and some of Ren, the latter ones varying from him in the Metaverse to him walking with her in Inokashira, chatting with her on the subway on the way to their hideout, or even chatting with her alone on the said hideout. That’s when she noticed one important detail. Ren-kun always took her to places he considered important or fun. He wanted to hang out with her. And so did she. Despite preferring to read a book or think about strategies, whenever Ren called her, she would show up. No matter when, no matter where. That realization made her blush, as she finally noticed what she had for him.

She had fallen in love with her leader.

* * *

 

**Church at Kanda**

**6:58 P.M.**

“Thank you for the match. I look forward to our next one…” Hifumi said, bowing her head. Ren also bowed his head.

“The Shogi queen has won again, even though she went easy on me. This just proves I have yet much to learn…” He said in a serious tone, but the green-eyed girl knew he was being playful.

“To be fair, you are becoming much better at the game. Your strategies still could use some refining, but they are valid and could defeat someone that doesn’t acknowledge them.” She explained.

“So, if I were to play with someone who never played before, I would win?” He asked cockily, to which she gave a small gasp and a giggle.

“Theoretically, yes, but it would be an unfair match. I thought you also believed in fairness, Ren-san.” She teased.

“Just Ren, no need for the ‘san’. I do believe in it, but I also like to win from time to time.”  He replied smugly. She chuckled again.

“Oh, Ren… Still, I do understand what you mean. It does feel good to win from time to time.” The Venus of Shogi stated. “I had an intense match with Makoto once. She was fierce! She didn’t know many advanced shogi strategies, but that didn’t stop her from eliminating almost half of the Gold Promotion army!” She told him while he weakly nodded. That’s when she noticed he was looking a bit… sheepish. That was unexpected. He never acted that way before… She decided to ignore it. “Also, Ren, have you been in contact with Makoto recently? I have tried to send her messages for us to meet up, but she’s busy most of the time…”

“Oh, she’s been having some meetings these days. With the student council, I think. I don’t know why, but I haven’t been able to talk to her since yesterday after lunch…” The glassed boy responded with a tone of sadness. The shogi player noticed that sadness in his voice and saw a bit of it in his eyes. He had never talked to her about Makoto after that day they met in Jinbocho, even though she knew they were close. She decided to get some insight from the boy in front of her.

“I see… that’s sad. I wish I could challenge her to another match. Maybe I could even teach her special moves… or maybe you could be the one to do that.” The moment those words left her mouth, the boy froze. “You are quite close to her and you could teach her in a day I might not be able to.” She continued, noticing a small blush on his cheeks after she finished. She waited for his response, but none came. He kept looking off into the distance, lost in thought, never losing that small blush. Since he was thinking, she decided to search her memory. She had only seen them together once nearly two months ago, but they were quite close. She knew they kept in touch because Yusuke told her he kept in contact with both of them nearly every day. She also heard from the artist that Ren would spend time with Makoto in Inokashira or even Café Leblanc. That meant both did spend a lot of time together. The red-eyed girl confirmed this one day during one of their matches, as said girl commented she really enjoyed Leblanc’s coffee, especially if the gambler spirited boy made it. All these events could only lead to one conclusion: the boy that practiced with her had feelings for her brunette friend. When she realized this, she looked at said boy and noticed he was still looking into nothingness. She decided to change that. “Ren, why don’t you send a message to her right now? Maybe she could spend some time with you tomorrow.”

He snapped out of it and replied quickly “W-what do you mean with me? Don’t you mean with us? I thought you wanted to hang out with her, too.”

“I do want to spend time with her, but I think you want it more than I do.” The longhaired brunette girl stated smugly. The frizzy-haired boy looked at her shocked but didn’t comment anything. “From what I can gather, you feel a special connection with her, don’t you?”

“…yes. God, this is already the third time this has happened these last three days…” He mumbled. While the girl was extremely curious about what he meant, she decided to continue.

“Well, our lesson is over, so I think you should go home for now. You should also talk to her. I don’t think keeping those feelings to yourself is a good idea. It would be the same if you tried to win Shogi without promoting pieces when doing so would grant you a win.” She suggested. The dark-grey-eyed boy, after thinking a bit, nodded.

“Okay. I’ll try.” He looked at his wristwatch. “It’s already late. I have to go home anyway.” The shogi player nodded. “I’ll try and talk to her, but I can’t promise anything… before you interrupt me, yes, I am in love with her.” She looked shocked. “Yeah, nobody expects a confession out of the blue like that, but it’s true. There’s no use trying to hide it, seeing as you have already pieced it all together. However, I still need to think about it.”

“What do you need to think about?”

“What I’ll do with this feeling and what it means.” That moment, Morgana came out of his bag and meowed. “You’re right. There’s school tomorrow.” She found the cat very cute, but she also found it weird how the boy responded to it, almost as if it was a person. Before she could comment, he said: “Well, see you soon, Hifumi!” He waved happily and turned to leave.

“See you soon! Also!” He turned to look at her. “Good luck getting promoted!” She said with a wink, which made the boy chuckle, blush and leave. She laughed at his reaction, never expecting him to have a bashful and romantic side like this.

* * *

 

**Niijima Apartment**

**6:51 P.M.**

 Sae had just proudly finished preparing her part of dinner. Everything smelled and probably tasted great! She had taken a small sip of her sister's soup and it felt different but still delicious. Speaking of her, she still hadn't finished her bath. Weird. She normally never took more than ten minutes in there. The prosecutor went to the bathroom door and knocked on it, hearing a small yelp from the other side. "Makoto, are you done? Dinner's ready."

 "A-almost! I just need to dry myself..." The red-eyed teen responded shakily. Why was she so jumpy?

 "Okay, I'll be waiting for you at the table." The red-eyed prosecutor said. She then decided to tease her sister. "It would be a shame if I had to eat everything alone..." The teasing seemed to have the desired effect, as the young woman heard a whimper coming from the bathroom as she made her way to the table. That competitiveness of Makoto would be something she knew could lead her into trouble, but it could also make her stand out. After another five minutes of waiting at the table, her sister arrived in a comfy looking red pajama, looking a bit more determined.

 "Glad you could make it." The grey-haired young woman said teasingly. "The food's still hot. Why did you take so long?"

"Sorry about that... I was thinking about today's meeting. Thank you for the food!" The brunette said while sitting down, clasping her hands together, bowing and starting to eat.

"Thank you for the food!" The red-eyed woman did the same as her sister. "But what was it about? It's been a while since you talked with the other council members, right?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell you! I and the council have met yesterday and today to discuss rumors."

The topic made the prosecutor curious. "Rumors? Why is that a topic the student council would be interested in?"

"The rumors in Shujin are quite bad, sis. They spread quickly and are always done so in a way to harm another student's reputation. Sometimes, the basis of the rumor can be true, but the rumors themselves are quite ridiculous."

"Could you elaborate on that?"

"The best example I can give you is with Ren Amamiya. I may have talked about him before to you, as he's one of my friends. He was part of a misunderstanding earlier this year, which caused some problems. He was innocent in the situation but was branded a troublemaker, a delinquent. Because of that, the students hated him since the day he arrived. Not only that, they also began spreading rumors around about him, some saying that he was part of a gang, some saying he stabs people with a knife when he gets angry."

"Those are quite serious accusations." Sae commented. "Are you not telling me everything?"

Her sister froze. "...yes. But I'm not telling you everything because I don't think this is something you should worry about, sis."

"If he has rumors like that around him, then I should worry. People don't make accusations this big over something trivial, which is what you're suggesting happened to him based on your explanation. If he does happen to be a threat on some level, of course I'll worry." She said. Her sister got visibly angry at that claim.

"Ren-kun is NOT a threat!" The teenager responded in a much higher tone her sister was expecting, which made her go wide-eyed. "He has been silently dealing with this for over six months now! All of these rumors are baseless and fake! All of them accusing him of something that he isn't! And he can't respond to it, else he'd just give these people that want his reputation  _dead_ more fuel to burn him! So he bears it without reaction _every single day_. It honestly breaks my heart that a person like him has to go through all of this when he hasn't done anything wrong." Makoto said in a tone of complete desperate honesty to her sister, which just listened. After that, she lowered her tone a little. "I may have the power to stop that. I can't stand that injustice that has been following Ren-kun ever since he stepped foot in Tokyo, and if I can make some of that go away, I will. This will not only help other students that suffer from these rumors, which there are a lot of those, but it will also give peace of mind to a person that sacrifices so much of his own life to make others happy." She finished seriously, but she was scared. She was scared of her sister's reaction to her outburst and to her reasoning. Said young woman didn't respond, as she just looked at her sister.

' _She seems so much like him. The sense of justice..._ ' She thought. "Ren Amamiya must be someone you're quite close with if you are doing all of this for him." She stated dully.

"He is one of my best friends. I'm not doing this only for him, but he was the reason why I decided to speak of this matter with the council. There are other three students that I know that also suffer from those rumors and I know there are many more in the school. I can hear the whispers as I walk by, sis. I can hear every word they utter. I have the power to put a stop to it, why wouldn't I?"

"What would you gain from it?" The grey-haired woman asked in a defying tone.

The brunette looked at her firmly, then gave a small sigh before looking at her sister firmly again. "It would help a lot of people that need it and deserve it. It would be something I could be proud of."

The red-eyed woman looked at her. "Alright. I won't question you anymore. But I hope you do understand what you're doing and the possible effects of your actions."

"Believe me, sis. I am 100% confident in myself and this plan."

* * *

 

**On the way to the Kanda station**

**7:02 P.M.**

The black cat turned to the boy and said: “I know you’re tired and that it’s late, but you almost made her suspicious by answering me! You have to be more careful!”

“I know, but I don’t think we need to worry. I know it’s uncommon for someone to walk around with their cat in their bag, but responding to animals is something a lot of people do.” He replied matter-of-factly.

“I already told you a million times I’m NOT a CAT!” The (NOT) cat said angrily. The boy shrugged.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry.”

The wind-user didn’t like that response. It was too simple and not at all a response Ren would give in normal circumstances. “Ren.”

“Yeah?”

“You do know you have to stop freezing every time we talk to you about Makoto, right?” He asked concerned. The boy froze once more. “See? I can’t even tell you her name without you freezing! What’s the deal? Where’s the confidence Joker shows? The suave nature? Is it all an act? Is it only part of Joker and not Ren?”

Said boy slowly continued his walk to the station. Mona’s right. Where was his confidence, suave nature and smoothness? Had he lost it? No, no, that wasn’t possible. They went to the Metaverse only a week ago and he still showed all those traits. Was it something he only did in the Metaverse? No, that wasn’t it, either. He was confident while close to his friends, case in point being Shinya and Hifumi today. Well, Hifumi until she figured out he was in love with Makoto. Then he became a mess. Could it be hormones? Actually, that made sense. But could it be only that? Or was there something else? He noticed he was at the station, so he bought the ticket and waited for the train to arrive. When it did, he was lucky enough to find an empty spot near the end of the car, far away from anyone else in said car. He went there, leaned against the wall, put his bag in front of him and said discreetly: “Morgana, I have a question for you.”

“No one’s listening in, right?” The wind user asked while looking at the boy through the open zipper of the bag. He nodded. “Then go ahead, but don’t forget to pay attention to our line.”

“I know. Well, to start, you and everyone else that pays attention to Makoto and me know that I’m in love with her. I kept trying to hide it, but I’m terrible at it, so now I’m going to be open about it with anyone that notices. That being said, I thought about what you said about my confidence, but I kept reaching a blank. The only thing I could come up with was hormones, but I think there’s something else. What do you think it could be?” He explained and asked honestly.

“It’s good to see you being more open, Ren. But to answer your question, I think... you are afraid. Afraid of doing something stupid in front of her, of making her sad and, most importantly, afraid of being rejected if you ever decide to tell her your feelings. Do you remember back in Kaneshiro’s palace when you tried to summon two personas at once?” The boy nodded, embarrassed. “That was something pretty dumb you did to try and impress her. After you woke up and noticed we were all worried, your confidence vanished for the rest of that day. You were lucky we had to come back right after that little incident because you not having your confidence makes you pretty useless.” The original navigator felt a small tug at the bag. “It’s true. Your strongest weapon is your confidence, Ren. Without it, you become so insecure I even ask myself if I’m talking to the same person.” He finished. They arrived at Shibuya and took the ride to Yongen-Jaya. While they were passing from one line to the other, the Phantom Thieves leader was deep in thought. After arriving at the empty café, locking the door, going up the stairs and preparing himself to go to sleep, he turned to his friend.

“What you’re telling me, then, is that I’m afraid of hurting and/or being rejected by Makoto and that makes me lose my confidence?”

“Yes, and that happens automatically when you hear her name because you are still trying to come to terms with your feelings. But you shouldn’t be.”

“Why? I mean, I know that this is bad, but why shouldn’t I be afraid?”

“Because there’s a high chance Makoto likes you back.” The human looked at the cat wide-eyed. “Can we talk more about this tomorrow? I want to sleep.” He continued while jumping on the bed.

“O-okay… sure…” The boy said blushing.

“If you want to see what I mean, think about your interactions with her ever since you started getting close to her. And also about when you saved her back in Futaba’s palace.” Morgana suggested a little annoyed, but sincerely. “Well, good night.”

“Good night, Morgana. Sorry for bothering you.” Ren responded embarrassed.

“It’s okay. Just make sure you won’t let this affect you for much longer, okay? It could bring problems in other parts of your life if you’re not careful.” The blue-eyed feline responded.

“I will. Thanks, Morgana. Well, good night!” The dark-grey-eyed boy said while turning off the lights. He would do what his companion suggested tomorrow. He had a lot to think about and knew it would take a while before he managed to actually sleep, as the thoughts would invade his mind as usual as he lied down on the bed.

* * *

**10:12 P.M.**

The girl of his dreams was also going to sleep at that very moment, and she had many thoughts in her head. Both were thinking about the same subject: their relationship. Both knew they were madly in love, but they also didn’t truly know what to do. The obvious answer would be to talk to each other, but they were feeling awkward around each other for ‘unknown’ reasons. Scratch that, those were their feelings getting in the way of them functioning like normal human beings. And Makoto grabbing his butt. The obvious question that arose from that fact was how they could talk to each other normally? That’s when the answer came to both of them: the Metaverse! If they were to try and not be awkward around each other, they could just go to the Metaverse to train. But… were there any targets they could go after?

‘ _I should ask Ren if there are any targets… I won’t be able to sleep until I get this out of my mind anyway…_ ’ Makoto thought, getting up, grabbing her phone, opening the texting app and lying down again. She found Ren’s contact fixed at the top of her list and opened the chat message. The last time he’d been online was only one minute ago... now he was online! …now he wasn’t anymore. Online. Offline. Online. It stayed online this time. She then saw he was typing to her!!! Then it stopped. Then it came back. Could he be trying to type something important to her? Whatever the case was, she gathered all the courage she could muster, typed her message and quickly sent it before she gave up.

**Makoto:** Hey there, Ren-kun. Sorry for sending this so late in the night, but are there any targets for us to go after in Mementos?

**Ren:** Hello, Makoto! No, unfortunately not. Do you also want to train?

**Makoto:** Well… yes. But it’s unfortunate that there aren’t any targets…

**Ren:** I agree. But I think there will be some pretty soon. I’ve been talking with two friends and both have some troubles that only the Phantom Thieves could solve. At least, I think so.

**Makoto:** Let’s hope so. That way, we can help them. We also need to be in top shape for any Palaces we may find in the future.

**Ren:** I agree.

Well, they managed to talk to each other. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. Now, how would they say goodbye? Both lingered on that question for a long time.

**Ren:** Wait, it’s already 10:30?!

She checked her phone’s clock. Indeed, it was that late. How long was she thinking about all of this?! Still, she was much calmer now that she managed to talk to her crush (it felt weird to think that, but also so right) and that they would soon train on Mementos.

**Makoto:** It seems like it… I guess we should get going…

**Ren:** Yeah… we do need to pay attention to the classes tomorrow…

**Makoto:** You always do anyway, right?

**Ren:** Most of the time…

**Makoto:** Most of the time?! Does that mean there are times where you slack off?!

**Ren:** No, of course not! Sometimes I read a book or make infiltration tools without anyone noticing since I already know what the teacher’s saying.

**Makoto:** Well… while I can’t say what you’re doing is right from the school’s point of view, but it does help us as a group. Just make sure you aren’t caught or let your grades suffer because of that, okay Ren-kun?

~~**Ren:** Of course, my Queen.~~

**Ren:** Of course, Queen.

**Makoto:** Did… did you just call me Your Queen?

**Ren:** no

**Makoto:** Yes you did!

**Ren:** I don’t know what you’re talking about.

The red-eyed girl sighed. She shouldn’t push him for answers right now. Both were tired.

**Makoto:** If you say so… still, we should get going. If we don’t, we won’t be able to stay awake tomorrow.

**Ren:** Then I bid you good night, dear Queen. May you sleep well and have sweet dreams.

She blushed at the message. ‘Dear Queen’?! He never called her that before! Okay, calm down… and reply. Reply in the same manner.

**Makoto:** I also bid you good night, dear Joker. May your dreams be peaceful and happy.

**Makoto:** You deserve them.

The brunette couldn’t believe she had just typed that! It was such a cheesy thing to say! But…

It was how she felt.

And the boy?

He was blushing from his boldness in calling her “His Queen”, something he wanted to tell her for so long, and from her good night to him. Yet, he was relieved. He FINALLY managed to talk to her, if only for a bit, and plan a trip to Mementos!

Both felt huge weights suddenly being removed from their souls after their small and awkward conversation. Both turned their alarm clock on, put the phone on silent, put the phone away and closed their eyes, drifting off into a peaceful sleep neither knew they needed so desperately.

They weren’t close to their goal, but they knew how to get there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has some moments that do drag out on length (like the beginning text messages) or seem unnecessary (like putting the whole Miso and Cookie recipe on Makoto's part) and I'm sorry if these parts felt slow to any of you. I DID place them here for a reason, though. See if you can figure out what that is!  
> I also decided to make this chapter have more character thoughts like in "How can lies hurt so much?", though in specific segments. That's also placed there deliberately, so I wanna see if you can find out when it appears more and why!  
> (I'm suggesting for you guys to analyze this quite a lot, huh?)  
> Also, as usual, here are the links I used as research for this story!
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PXw5tM6fg3diwZIcTsZ3qG7UllDGI2O7P_4uuhwUpvs/edit#gid=1945643665  
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/comments/7bf5cf/persona_5_awakenings_transcript/  
> http://punpedia.org/goat-puns/  
> http://rhodesmill.org/goldeneye/multi.html  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Protagonist_(Persona_5)  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Makoto_Niijima  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Morgana  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Yusuke_Kitagawa  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Haru_Okumura  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Sojiro_Sakura  
> http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Hifumi_Togo  
> https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/japanese-tea-part2  
> https://www.thespruceeats.com/japanese-meal-2030934  
> https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/2/20/Tokyo_Map_Art_P5.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170516161920  
> https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/171719-quick-sweet-chinsuko-okinawan-cookies?via=search&search_term=japanese%20cookies  
> https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13107/miso-soup/  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi


	3. What should we do...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ren and Makoto, both having realized their feelings toward one another, decide to see what they should do. A certain friend of theirs proves to have a pretty good idea of the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> December begins and along with it comes a new (late) chapter!  
> Boi, I need to make sure to upload these faster...  
> I got the inspiration to finish this chapter after finishing Jojo, believe it or not... yeah. In one month, I watched all four parts of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure because I wanted to see the series that partially inspired Persona.  
> The main source of inspiration for this chapter was the ending of Diamond is Unbreakable, "I Want You" by Savage Garden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQt6jIKNwgU).  
> It's a wonderful song, and it's lyrics fit with this chapter really well! ...I think.  
> As always, check the endnotes to see some more extra stuff on the behind the scenes of this chapter!  
> Hope you enjoy!

**Shujin Academy**

**7:53 A.M.**

"And if Haru defending the delinquent wasn't enough, Miss Prez seems to be buddy-buddy with him too!"

“Are you serious…?”

“Yeah, I’m sure!”

“So wait, does that mean Prez is dating a criminal?”

“I don’t think so. From what I heard, HE has a crush on her.”

“But aren’t they close friends or whatever? Doesn’t that mean there’s a chance she likes him back?”

“I don’t know. May—“

“Shut up, she’s here!”

‘ _So, they have finally picked up what Ren-kun said…_ ’ Makoto thought as she passed the gossiping students, who went quiet when they saw her come inside the classroom. She knew they wouldn’t stop now. The moment they thought she wasn’t hearing, they would keep whispering among themselves about the incident. Why did this matter so much to them? Why the constant need to bad-mouth Ren-kun? Why did they need to bring up the fact he told her she was one of the most important people in his life (something she DID NOT blush about. Not at all.)? And why did these people only pick that up now? Or did they talk about it for the last two days but she didn’t hear? That would be possible, considering... everything that happened… but improbable nonetheless. _‘Damn it, there I go again. I keep thinking about why this, why that… I should be taking action. I need to get my mind out of this subject…’_ She thought as she placed her bag on her desk and left her classroom, noticing the gossiping students’ chatter picked up where it left off the moment her foot was out of the room. _‘I’ll never understand that behavior…’_

Now, where could she go? She only had 7 minutes at minimum to refresh her mind. Maybe she could talk to someone… _‘Maybe Ann, Ryuji, Haru or Ren-kun… no…I can’t talk with Ren… not yet. Maybe tomorrow, when we go to Mementos! ...if we end up going, that is. But, knowing Ren's drive to help people, we will probably have two or three requests to take care of. THEN I could talk to him... AFTER we finish the requests... Yes… that would be optimal… Why is my heart beating so fast now?! Is only thinking about him enough to get me flustered?!’_ She thought while quickly and automatically making her way toward the cafeteria. When she got to the empty lunchroom in less than fifteen seconds (a fact that surprised even her), she decided to taste the school’s coffee. Wait… Shujin didn’t serve coffee. Why did she think it did? Maybe it was because she was liking coffee a lot as of recently. Because of Boss and Ren-kun’s amazing homebrewed coffee. She could almost feel the aroma…

“Oh, hello Mako-chan!” A sweet voice said behind her, which made her jump and instinctively turn around with her fist closed, prepared to punch whoever the intruder was. Her closed hand was one centimeter away from a startled face, blocked by a gentle hand that grabbed her punch. The red-eyed girl noticed she almost punched Haru in the middle of the school’s cafeteria! "Mako-chan?!"

“Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry, Haru! Are you okay? Did my punch hurt your hand?” She exclaimed desperately while gently grabbing her startled friend’s hand, checking it to make sure it wasn’t hurt.

“I’m okay, Mako-chan! You don’t need to worry; I managed to block your… unexpected punch before it could hurt me.” The shorter girl replied calmly and sweetly (after having to take a deep breath from the scare) to her startled and apologetic friend.

“Are you sure I didn’t hurt your hand, though? From what people tell me, I’m stronger than I seem…” The brunette told her friend while STILL checking her hand. The fluffy-haired Empress giggled and put her other hand on top of her friend’s.

“I’m sure, Mako-chan. You don’t need to worry about me. I have learned from last time.” She said with a smile, which quickly turned into a worried expression. “I am worried about you, however. You only act this way on our missions, which means you’re on high alert. Why is that?”

The slightly older girl looked down, her bangs covering her crimson eyes. “I-it’s nothing. Nothing major, that is. You don’t need to worry.” She lied, covering her feelings up with a smile. The slightly younger girl, knowing how people lie through their teeth, noticed right away that it was fake. She put her hand on her friend’s shoulder and said seriously:

“You’re lying.” The other girl went wide-eyed and opened her mouth to speak, only for the fluffy-haired girl to continue. “I know when someone’s lying, Mako-chan. I am the daughter of a man who owns a big company that has to make deals with people shallower than the Shadows we defeat. Why not tell me what’s wrong? Is it something embarrassing? And, even if it is... do you not trust me?” She let the question hang in the air for the nuclear user to think, which she did immediately.

_‘Should I tell Haru about this…? It’s just a small crush… it isn’t that important… and she has many more important things to worry about. It’s best I don’t… but if I tell her anything other than the truth, she’ll get hurt… she’ll know I’m lying. If I tell her, however, she’ll try her hardest to help me… I’m sure of it. Haru’s too nice a person for her own good sometimes…’_

_‘She’s also the one who loves having Shadows begging for mercy at her feet.’_

_‘I guess so… but we only saw her doing that once. Twice actually. We can't be sure if that's her normal beha-wait, am I talking to myself again?’_

_‘Well… yes. In a way, I am you.’_

_‘In a way? Wait… you are me… so you’re that different desire, right?’_

_‘You could say that, yes.’_

_‘But a different desire would mean… a rawer, unprocessed… irrational desire… right?’_

_‘It could mean that, yes. Or it could be a deeper desire.’_

_‘Then… that can only mean… Johanna?’_

_‘It took you long enough to figure it out. I can’t blame you, considering your emotional state.’_

_‘Why are you copying my voice? You have you own, don’t you? Why pretend to be me? And why did you lie to me?’_

_‘I do have my own voice, but I think you need a small push to realize the solution for your predicament, sweetheart. I do not pretend to be you, as I am you. Moreover, I had to lie if I wanted you to think about this for yourself. Now, relax and prepare yourself.’_

_‘Why-‘_

Suddenly, the ruby-eyed girl’s vision changed.

* * *

 

Instead of sitting by Haru’s side, she was on top of sand-colored blocks, a violent wind created by Wakaba's wings blowing against her and the other Phantom Thieves, as they all shielded their eyes with their arms, trying desperately to hold on. _‘How is this wind so strong!? Why am I back here?!’_ she thought, the first exasperated and the second one confused. She was feeling the same dread she felt when they got to the top of the pyramid and saw Futaba’s cognition of her mother. Why?! 

“If it’s not a Shadow, then what is it!?” She heard Ryuji shout to Morgana.

“It’s a… cognition!” Said cat responded, his tiny paws hanging on a crack on the blocks as hard as he could. “A monster that Futaba’s cognition created!”

“How can that be!?” Queen asked, confused at the moment and now. She had already been through this! All the cognitions they saw before that were harmless! Even if she had only fought in one palace, they were only walking ATMs! Why were her thoughts so jumbled?! Is it because she was inside a memory and not living the moment? And according to Ren-kun, the cognitions in Kamoshida’s palace were normal students! So how could one be so deadl--?

“Hey, look out!” Skull shouted to her desperately. She knew what was going to happen, but couldn't control her body. She quickly looked at him and then to where his gaze went, seeing a pillar falling toward her. Before she could even make a sound, Joker jumped, grabbed and pushed her away from the danger as she let out a yelp. They both fell with a hard thud on the ground, but the pillar crushed neither. Quickly, he put his hand on her back and raised her to stand. _‘I wish I could control my body… Did Ren-kun just...!? ...but this feels nice...’_

“Are you okay?!” He asked worriedly and desperately, looking her over and in the eye.

“Y-yeah…” She responded dizzily, looking him in the eye, too. When she noticed the genuine worry in his eyes and the fact he just saved her, she felt like time had slowed down… why couldn’t she look away…? It seems he couldn’t too… his strong, grey eyes looked straight into her ruby eyes… what was this feeling in her chest…? Had she felt that back then, too…? She couldn’t think straight…

“Here it comes!” Skull warned everyone. The leader and vice-leader both snapped out of their trance and looked at the cognition that was staring them down angrily. Both gasped when they saw it spread its wings and lifted off to the skies. Everyone stopped moving in that moment, however, including the flying sphynx, almost as if time had stopped. She moved her hand and saw she had control over her body. Curious, she let herself out of Ren's grab and decided to look around. She looked over all her teammates, who were shocked at the cognition. She remembered how scary it was. Luckily, it was all in the past. She then looked back to Ren, his face showing shock, desperation and... worry. She then looked at his stance. He had one hand where her back would be and one was very close to her belly, almost like he was trying to protect her.

"Even two months ago... did you already like me back then?" She asked to the motionless memory, knowing it wouldn't respond. "I wish I had the courage to talk to you about this. But... would I be right for you?" She asked, more to herself than to him. She looked around them, seeing all her friends' expressions. Now that she had time (did time exist here?) to look at them, she saw a mix of horror, shock and fear in all of them at the same time. It was... a little unsettling, to say the least. Accessing a memory was not something she expected to be doing today, yet here she was, seeing one of many scary moments for the team. She looked back to Joker. His expression was the same as the others, but his had... something more. She couldn't quite place what until she looked at his eyes. They had a gentleness to them as they looked to the spot she was in previously. A gentleness she saw... in her parents' eyes at any moment she cried. An expression that had... love? After looking him over, she gave him a deep sheepish kiss on his right cheek. She sighed after doing so, feeling a certain weight being lifted from her chest.  _'You're keeping a lot to yourself, right? I wish I could help... and I wish I could tell you how I feel. But I'm afraid I'd just be adding more things for you to worry about if I decide to become intimate with you...'_

Suddenly, a bright flash of white nearly blinded the unexpecting brunette.

* * *

 

With wide eyes and a loud gasp, she returned to the present, the girl at her side jumping from the fact that her still friend suddenly seemed on alert.  “Mako-chan, what happened?! Are you okay?!”

“I- yeah… I’m fine…” She replied unsurely. “How long was I…?” She asked worriedly.

“It’s been about 5 minutes. You know, when Ren-kun said you thought of everything, I didn’t think he was being so literal!” She replied with a sweet smile. The red-eyed girl looked embarrassed at the joke. “So, has that time been enough to help you realize that you can trust me?”

“Y-“

“Excuse me!” A voice rang through the door interrupting the Priestess. Both girls turned to see a third girl, Momo, standing in front of them. “Sorry for interrupting… Okumura-senpai.” She said apologetically while bowing to the youngest of the third-years.

“There’s no need for such formalities, Momo-chan. Just call me Haru!” The fluffy-haired Empress said happily. The first-year nodded.

“Alright, Haru-chan! We need to talk after school, Makoto-chan! It’s very important!” She warned the council president in a tone of urgency.

“Oh… of course.” The third-year replied. Then her eyes widened as she remembered something important. “Oh, that’s right! We have to discuss the parley!! I had completely forgotten!” She said desperately as she stood up. “And I’m the one who should be thinking about this the most! Oh, I’m so sorry, Momo-chan! I promise I’ll give 110% today!”

“Woah, calm down, Miss Prez! You haven’t done anything wrong to apologize that much!” The youngest girl said with a smirk. “Just don’t be late, okay? I know you never do, but with the way your head’s been up in the clouds lately, you never know~~” She teased in a singing tune, to which the ruby-eyed girl gave a small whimper and blush. Her chocolate-eyed friend looked at her with a curious smile. After all, she hadn’t seen much of her vice-leader’s bashful side. “Teasing aside, I hope you can make it today. We need to iron out the details to make sure this goes as well as we want it to!”

“I completely agree. Let’s give this the best we can!” The Priestess replied feeling pumped up. She even offered the younger student a fist bump, which she took happily.

“It’s good to see you this determined, Makoto-chan! Well, classes will be starting soon, so I’ll see you later!” The ponytail girl said cheerfully and left waving. Both third years waved back.

“She seems like a nice person, Mako-chan! You are lucky to have such people to help you in the council!” Haru commented happily.

“I guess so… though, I feel a bit guilty that I didn’t speak to them for a few months…” Makoto commented sadly. “I should have proposed the parley earlier, when everything was less chaotic…”

“Is that parley the reason you asked us to keep our Monday free?” The rich girl guessed.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a parley about rumors. I think-“ At that moment, the bell that announced the beginning of classes rang, startling the nuclear user. “Oh, we better get going. We can’t afford to be late for our classes, can we?” She said.

“I guess so…” The Empress commented sadly while looking down. She then started to leave for her classroom. The crimson-eyed girl noticed her friend’s reaction, put two and two together, held the fluffy-haired girl’s arm and said:

“Will you be free tonight?”

“What?” The shorter girl asked. “Um… Mako-chan… are you… as they say… asking me out?”

“What?! No, no I didn’t mean it like that!” The oldest girl replied while slowly letting go of her friend’s arm, her face with a bright tint of red. “I should have worded that better… No, I mean, will you be free tonight so I can tell you about the parley and what I’m going through?”

The sad frown slowly turned into a beaming smile for the younger of the two, as she said in a tone as happy as her smile: “Of course, Mako-chan! I’m so glad you decided to trust me!” She then pulled her friend into a tight hug, startling the vice-leader. “It means a lot to me… being trusted, that is.” She whispered. The red-eyed girl, noticing what her friend meant with those words, clumsily returned the hug.

“Of course I trust you, Haru. I would never stab you in the back, okay?” Her friend nodded and let her go.

“It’s settled, then? At around 7:00 P.M.?”

“Of course. Do you want any specific place, or do you prefer me choosing?”

“Oh, please do choose! I want to get a taste of what people normally eat!”

“Alright, then. I’ll see you later, then!” She said leaving with a wave of her hand.

“See you, Mako-chan!” The sweet girl said with a sweet smile, only for it to turn into a smirk. “By the way!” She said, making the older girl stop and turn around. “The subject was going to be Ren-kun, wasn’t it?” She said, hitting a spot on her friend that made her blush hard.

“H-how did you-“

“I am not dumb, Mako-chan. I can tell. Now go, or else you will arrive late for your classes!” She said in a motherly tone. “I should do the same! See you tonight!” She bid her farewell with a big smile, almost hopping away from the cafeteria as she left her poor friend speechless and flustered.

* * *

 

**Class 2-D**

**11:40 A.M. (Lunchtime)**

As the signal rang to announce lunchtime, the students quietly but quickly left to the cafeteria or stayed in their desks to unpack their meals. You could even hear some teachers saying what the students had to do for homework, with only part of the class listening and even less writing down what they had to do. Ann was among the latter in both fronts, as she happily unpacked her lunch and was ready to eat it when she noticed Ren hadn't even moved a centimeter. He was staring out the window (as usual), but his eyes signaled he was somewhere else entirely, deep in his thoughts. Weird... he normally left in a rush to talk to someone or he'd have lunch with one of his friends... he didn’t even grab his lunch from his bag! Could he be thinking about Makoto again? She decided to find out.

"Hey, Ren!" She said cheerfully as she fully turned around. The boy didn't seem to hear her. "Ren?" She tried again to no avail. She then reached out and gently grabbed and shook his shoulder. Nothing. She waved her hand in front of his face, almost like a cartoon character. Like said cartoons, he didn't react. She got up from her desk and went to his side, looking under his desk for their old Navigator. He was sleeping, as usual. "Morgana, wake up!" The blonde called out while crouching to pet the cat.

"Hmmmm... that feels so good..." he mumbled as he stretched. " When did you get so good at massages, Ren? And when did your hands become so soft...?" His eyes slowly opened and he finally saw the model, now with a smirk due to his comments, trying to wake him up. "L-lady Ann! Hello! How's your day?" He asked with a hint of desperation, probably of being caught while waking up.

"I'm fine, Morgana! Did you sleep well?" She asked with her smirk turning into an innocent smile.

"Yeah... I slept as a Phantom Thief should: royally. He then looked at his ‘owner’. “Ren didn't talk much today, did he?"

"Nope. That's what I wanted to talk to you about!" She exclaimed while standing up and looking at their leader. "He's been quiet the whole morning... he only said hi to us and sat down, not responding to anything... except to Mr. Inui's question about... I think it was the French Revolution, but that's it... is he thinking about Makoto again?" She suggested, putting her hand on her chin.

"He is." The cat replied. "I told him to remember what he could about her from the last 4 months."

"Why did you do that?" She asked, not understanding the cat’s logic.

"Because he needs to notice she likes him back." He explained, to which the blonde made a face that said "are you serious right now?". The wind user nodded.

"But it's so obvious she likes him! I mean, we have all the times they planned stuff out together, the times when they hang out, when he took her to the arcade, when he saved her at Futaba's palace, all the times they hung out for fun and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, the Hawaii trip!" She listed while counting on her hand.

"We all know that. The only ones who haven't noticed that the feelings are mutual are him and her, surprisingly. Or, if they do know, they don't acknowledge it." The self-proclaimed gentleman said matter-of-factly. "That's why I told him to think about it. He's probably going over his memories right now to see what I mean."

At that moment, Ryuji and Mishima entered the classroom. "Wassup, guys?"

"Hi there!" The dyed blonde and bluenette greeted happily, only to notice the Frizzy-haired boy was still thinking about... whatever it was. "Aw man, he's still like that?" The Phan-site admin asked the natural blonde, to which she nodded. "I hope he snaps out of it... hasn't he been like this since classes started today?"

"Man, he's gotta stop doin' that." The dyed blonde said. "It's the second time in two days and he prolly does that when he's alone. Get your head together, man!" He continued while giving his thoughtful friend a small punch on the shoulder, which startled him out of his thoughts and made Morgana yelp a small “Hey!”. "Good to see ya back on Earth, Ren-ren. How you doin'?"

"Ryuji... and Ann... and Mishima...?" The glassed boy said groggily while checking his phone that rang from a notification. "What time is it...?"

"You didn't notice? Well, guess it makes sense. It's lunchtime." Mishima responded with a hint of worry, to which his classmate went wide-eyed and jumped, almost dropping his phone and startling his three friends.

"Already?! I need to hurry, then! Sorry to leave so suddenly!" He said quickly and desperately to them as he sprinted out of the classroom, leaving behind three very confused teens and cat. _'Next stop: the rooftop. No, wait... what if she's also there...? Argh...'_ he thought while slowing down. _'Though... it wouldn't make much sense for her to be there... unless she's also interested in gardening. Ah, screw it. If she's there, I'll try and talk to her.'_ He decided as he sped up his pace, going up two steps at a time. He was lucky the hallways were empty; otherwise, everyone would be seeing the most hated person in school going to a suspicious place in a suspicious time. As he neared the door, his heart skipped a weird beat. It felt like someone was attempting to play the drum but didn't know what rhythm was. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened the door. He saw someone on their knees caring for the plants. He then saw it was a girl. He froze. He didn’t know which girl it was because his mind was already spinning and because of the sun rays that decided it would be a good idea to shine his eyes as soon as he got to the rooftop. _'Dammit, I have to stop freezing!'_ He then looked closer and saw it was Haru. He calmed down (but also felt a bit disappointed, for some reason) and went to talk to her. "Hello, Haru. Thanks for meeting me here."

She turned her head around and smiled when she saw her friend. "Oh, hello Ren-kun! It was no problem at all! How's your day going?" She asked sweetly. He gave a small smile back, but sighed immediately after, which worried the Empress.

"Honestly, I'm confused. I'd like your help, if possible." The trickster asked honestly. She nodded and got up from her spot, an action that worried the boy. "No, don't stop your gardening for me. I'd feel bad if the plants withered because I stopped you."

She gave him a cocky smile. "So you are suggesting that my care up until now isn't enough for my sweeties to survive?"

He widened his eyes. "That's not-"

The fluffy-haired girl giggled. "I'm only kidding, Ren-kun. I know you mean well." She continued playfully as she put away her gardening gloves and equipment. "Besides, I was already on the finishing touches when you arrived."

The grey-eyed boy looked at her. "Even though lunch just started?" He asked amazed, to which she just nodded happily. "You can be surprisingly agile and scary when you want to, you know?"

She turned to his direction and gave another wicked smile. "I can if I so desire. But I'm not on Mako-chan's level." The wildcard looked down after that comment. "You _are_ here to talk about her, correct, Ren-kun?"

He looked at her shocked. "How did you-"

"It was quite obvious. Ever since I met you, the two of you would resolve matters together. Remember when you and her approached me to know if I was the Beauty Thief?" She asked sincerely.

The wildcard smiled. "I can't forget. She was so blunt I thought you weren't going to reply."

"Yes, I considered not answering. I decided to do so because there was no use hiding information if you already knew of it." She replied matter-of-factly. "But you escaped the subject. You like her, do you not?"

He sighed. "Guess there's no use hiding it anymore. I do. And that's what's confusing me."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean? Are your feelings for her not clear...?" She asked confused.

“No, that’s not it. I guess… I just need someone to tell the story of how all of this came to be.” He admitted. “Do you think you have the time to listen?”

“Of course I do! I always wanted to hear your story as a Phantom Thief, Ren-kun!” She exclaimed happily. He smiled.

“Good, because this will be quite long. Just a warning: I won’t focus that much on just me while telling you this because I’ll also be telling you how I felt and feel for Makoto, so she’ll get some more exposure than the rest of the team, but do ask for their version of the story later, okay?”

“Of course!” She said looking around. “Would you mind me sitting, then?” He shook his head as a no; prompting her to sit gently on one of the nearby chairs as he put a table in front of the chair she chose and quickly sat on top of it. She looked at him, put her hands on her lap, smiled and said: “Please, start your story.”

He closed his eyes, crossed his arms and took a deep breath; almost as if to make sure he could find the words that would get his feelings across. "I don't know if you know this, but I didn't meet Makoto back in July. I actually met her back in April, when I first transferred here." The gardener looked a bit shocked at the revelation but nodded. "I actually managed to introduce myself to her back then. I had no guts, but hey, somehow I did it. I think it was...” He put his right hand on his chin. “…on April 20th... that I walked up to her in the library and asked for some help since I had just arrived. She asked me not to bother her, but, for some weird reason, I decided to insist. I told her that I was new, that I wanted to know the schedules and what to expect from the school for the following year. I expected her to get annoyed and tell me off, but you know what surprised me?" He asked to the girl uncrossing his arms, knowing she would sway her head as a no. "She decided to helped me. Unlike everyone in the school, except for Ryuji, she decided to listen and help a student... actually, a person in need. She didn't even ask for my name. She just said: 'All right, then. I can help you get used to our school. Please, sit down and grab a notebook and pen.'. She didn't even know I was the dreaded transfer student, but I don't think she cared back then." He remembered with a genuine smile across his face. Telling his new teammate something so personal felt… different, but good.

The older girl, meanwhile, discovered some newfound respect for her leader and vice-leader at that moment. _'Mako-chan had been helping Ren-kun even before she knew his name! It seems something did attract them from the beginning.'_ A thought came to her mind and she giggled. "You must have enjoyed the study session, huh, Ren-kun?"

The boy chuckled. "Of course I did! I had managed to talk to a beautiful girl and got her to help me adapt here. Her instructions and tips were precise, so much so that I use some of them to this day. I couldn't be more grateful to her." He kept the smile on his lips as he continued the story, this time with his hands on the edges of the table. "I don't think Morgana had come to our world yet, so it was literally just me and her. Actually... never mind, he had… but he just stayed in the bag for some reason… weird, One thing she did was surprise me: she managed to make school subjects fun! At least, the ones she decided to teach me that day, which were... Math... Chemistry... History... and..." He thought hard. "...English... I think. Yeah, English. She taught me some tricks for most problems I could have and be ready for problems that wouldn't show up for almost a year. She told me to pay attention to some Japanese myths and legends because those were turned into questions and lo and behold, I get asked about Yoshitsune and Goemon a month later. I guess... I did fall for her there. She's beautiful and I was always into brainiacs." He admitted in a low tone, admitting his feelings. He looked at Haru, almost as if asking if he should keep going and she nodded with a smile. His disappeared. "After that, however, we stopped talking. I became a Phantom Thief along with Ryuji, Morgana and Ann. We started to look for targets after Kamoshida. We wanted to change the world! We had the power, after all. We had a small misstep, though…” His expression turned gloomy. “Makoto found us on the rooftop. She immediately talked in a way that said ‘I’m suspicious of you, I’ll keep an eye on you and you better leave this rooftop’.”

“What made her suspicious of you at that time?”

“Well, the rooftop was off-limits to students, first of all... I think it still is... except for you, of course, and Principal Kobayakawa ordered her to investigate us.” The second part was said with some disdain in his voice. “I still don’t know why he decided to put this task on her shoulders… she seemed angry at him, too. Of course, we didn’t expect he’d… kick the bucket after the Hawaii trip…” The boy commented in a weird tone. “After a few weeks, we met Madarame, Yusuke and discovered the scheme with his pupils. We saved Yusuke, stopped Madarame and the former joined us. I was happy with how much progress we were making, especially considering we _were_ making progress, but I kept wondering about that allusive Makoto Niijima, student council president. I kept wondering if I could talk to her again, even if it was just a simple hi. I wanted to apologize for being on the roof and maybe get to meet her, for real." He looked at the Empress to see if she was paying attention, and found her eyes glued to him, intense interest on her face. He smiled but looked down after that sentence. "Little did I know I would be able to talk to her again… only, not in the way I hoped… again. After Madarame confessed, she started following me on school grounds, on the streets, heck, even on some restaurants. Morgana warned me about her. I even tried talking to her once, pretending not to know she was following me, but she didn't stick around for a long time. I was sad. She was following me and I knew why, but I couldn't sit her down and tell her what was really going on. She would call me crazy, and that was the last thing I wanted. So, I lived my days normally, until I was called to the student council. Just some context: the police still weren't heavily involved in trying to discover who we were back then, but even they couldn't figure us out. She did it _BY HERSELF_."

"What?!" The rich girl exclaimed loudly. "How did she manage to do something even the police couldn't?! Even if we consider that they had few personnel, it would not be easy to discover your identities!" She asked with extreme interest.

"That's the funny part... she somehow recorded one of our conversations and it happened to be one where Ryuji said really loudly that we were Phantom Thieves. Just what we needed, huh?" He said sarcastically but chuckled. "Luckily, he's been getting better at not gloating loudly about that... only sometimes."

"He must really like being part of our group...I sympathize with him in that regard." She commented sympathetically.

"I do too. We all do." The frizzy-haired boy commented with a small smile that vanished in the next sentence. "The problem is that we risk our lives every time we go there. And, obviously, Makoto didn't know that, so when she got herself kidnapped to help us find Kaneshiro, I was, pardon me for the word, SCARED **_SHITLESS_**. I honestly thought she could die, and there wouldn't be anything we could do to stop it..." He shuddered after the realization. "We're lucky she's extremely smart and knew... well, KINDA knew the risks of being bait to find a criminal. It was really reckless..."

“She got herself kidnapped?!” The CEO's daughter asked worriedly, covering her mouth with her hands. The glassed boy slowly nodded. She put up her hand after the initial shock and started to think. "I am curious now... is Mako-chan normally that reckless?"

He slowly shrugged. "Depends on the situation. Normally not, but when she's in the Metaverse, she can be more reckless than Ryuji. Especially if she's pissed off."

"Wouldn't that pose a problem for our team, then?" She worriedly asked.

"It would if it happened all the time. But when she punches Shadows in the face, she lets loose and calms down a bit."

"Interesting... I also feel a thrill when my axe makes contact with a Shadow and it screams for mercy!" She commented sweetly with an innocent (?) smile that made the leader feel a chill on his back. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but I was curious. Please, carry on."

He took a moment to calm down and reorganize his train of thought. "Do you know how she awakened to her Persona?" The brunette said no. "When we found her in Kaneshiro’s hideout, he took a picture of us in frame with some drugs. He wanted us to pay him 3,000,000 yen, or else he'd hand the picture over to the police. We had to 'agree' and leave, deciding to go to the Metaverse. We also decided to take her with us, since she already knew who we were and she wouldn’t leave this be."

"But she hadn't awakened to her powers yet. Did you consider the danger she was going to go through?"

"Of course we did! But, again, did you think she'd quit that easily?"

"...touché."

"My goodness, you use touché!"

"It's a very useful method of agreeing with someone!"

"I love using it, too! Anyway, back to the story. She obviously went with us to face Kaneshiro's Shadow in his flying bank- I'll tell more later -and find him we did. His Shadow was weird... it looked like a mix of him and a mosquito..."

"That must have been quite... unsettling..."

"It was. The worst was when he saw her and offered some tips on how to get some money..." He shuddered and clenched his fists. "He... the son of a bitch... offered her to become his slave. Offered her to sell drugs. Offered her to... sell her body."

The fluffy-haired girl gasped loudly and her face turned from horror to rage. "That is inexcusable!!! Oh, I wish I could have a _' word'_ with him..."

"Don't worry, we did give him some harsh words. And bruises.. But not at that moment. At that moment, he also told her that he'd make her sister his personal slave, along with her. That was the final straw because she started trembling with rage at that moment. She said, and I quote: 'I've been listening to you go on and on... SHUT THE HELL UP YOU MONEY-GRUBBING ASSHOLE!!!'

The rich girl put her hands on her mouth in shock. “I didn’t know Mako-chan could be so vulgar… then again…” She put her hands down on her lap and closed them, her eyes shadowed by her hair. “…I would feel the same way if it were me in her spot.” Both kept quiet for a few seconds, the boy to let the girl think and the mentioned thinking about everything. She then noticed something. “Ren-kun, you seem quite good at telling stories! You tell them with such detail… your memory must be quite good!” She praised. He scratched his neck in embarrassment.

“Thanks… I like telling stories. I DO exaggerate on the details sometimes… like right now. We only have…” The trickster checked his phone.”…15 minutes ‘till the bell rings.”

The psychic user widened her eyes. “Already?! I wish we had more time… Well, can I predict what happened after what you told me?” She asked curiously.

The younger boy looked at her puzzled. “Sure. I think you have a pretty clear picture now.”

“Let me see, then… you all defeated Kaneshiro and made him confess. I remember seeing the news when it happened, as father was very pleased that such a criminal had finally been arrested, though he was angry the police weren't the ones to make him confess. After that, you changed Futaba’s heart, she told me you saved Mako-chan’s life from a falling pillar, you two spent some part of summer together watching anime and your passion for her kept growing with each and every interaction. Am I correct?” She guessed with a smile but saw the second-year frozen. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She concluded satisfied, seeing the boy was now looking at her with burning cheeks. “You had good interactions with her, Ren-kun. You both share goals, aesthetics, knowledge and morals. I can tell that you two have a different connection than, say, you and Ann-chan. What’s I don’t understand is why you need my help. I’m not the best at romance, as you may know, so why come to me to talk about this? Wouldn’t Ann-chan or Futaba-chan be better people to talk to?”

Ren’s expression changed from flustered to worried. “I don’t wanna talk about this with them yet. They both know I like Makoto a lot and would probably tease me about it, even if they do end up helping…” He admitted with some shame.

“Ren-kun, you don’t know that for sure. It seems our group likes to play and have fun, but when a serious situation comes to us, we focus on it until it’s done, don’t we?” She asked him seriously and he nodded. “This might seem like something small, but it could turn into something that changes your life. If you and Mako-chan end up together and you truly love each other, you could possibly end up married to her. That is something important, as far as I’m concerned.” She proposed matter-of-factly, which made the Fool think, his cheeks red at the mention of marriage. After a few seconds and a deep sigh, he said:

“You’re right on both ends. I’ll talk to Ann and Futaba later. And I know this could be something serious in both our lives. There are two things that worry me that I want to ask you: firstly, this is the dumbest one, but I’m worried that Makoto doesn’t want to date.” Haru opened her mouth to object, but he raised his hand to stop her. “She has dreams and ambitions, big ones at that. To be able to achieve them, she’d need to study a lot to enter a good college. I don’t wanna date her if it means I’m talking her time with walking around the park when she could be instead learning new things to make her dreams come true. Secondly… I love her. That becomes clearer as time goes on. But it’s this love that makes me confused. How can I be sure I love someone if I only know her for 4-5 months? Isn’t this just a little weird?” He asked his friend, waiting for her response. She started giggling, which then turned into a laugh that confused the Trickster. “…whyyy are you laughing?”

“Oh, Ren-kun, you can be so innocent sometimes. And blinded by passion.” She giggled. “You’re creating excuses to not talk to her because you are afraid. Afraid of rejection. So, your mind starts creating all these ‘what if?’ scenarios. It’s honestly cute and a little worrisome that you didn’t figure this out already.” She said in a tone mixing happiness and worry.

“But-“

“No buts, Ren-kun!” She interrupted strongly and gave him a cold stare. “I have already discovered what you have and now you’ll listen to me. Understood?”

He nearly fell from the table he was sitting on. “Y-yes m ’am…”

“Good.” She said happily. “You may or may not truly love Mako-chan, but it’s undeniable that you’re in love with her. I’ve read before that being in love makes a person feel scared of rejection, so the mind starts to create scenarios that reflect that fear so that the person doesn’t become sad. It’s a defensive mechanism, from what I remember. I thought it was a bit exaggerated, but seeing how you reacted, it seems like it’s true. So, I have a proposition. I will help you become closer to Mako-chan so this doesn’t influence you negatively. Is this okay with you?” He nodded, almost as if he was afraid of saying no. “Just suggest being her study partner.” She offered happily and innocently. The boy’s eyes were already wide open, but somehow, they opened even more.

“Uh-I-dh-a-wha-WHAT?!” He asked dazed. “A ‘study partner’?! That directly?! That simply?! Not holding anything back?!” He continued the barrage of questions. The Empress giggled.

“Yes, that simply.” She stated holding his hands. “I don’t think being subtle with her is your best method. You need to be direct in expressing your feelings to her, not only to make her understand in one sentence but also to make your feelings of self-doubt and fear disappear.”

He blushed. “But why a ‘Study Partner’?! You realize how… potentially pervy that sounds?!”

“It’s only ‘pervy’ if you yourself are thinking that it is, is it not? Besides, you told me that you both met because she helped you study. According to Ann, the most romantic moments are when a couple remembers their origins.” She explained dramatically, which made the Fool sweatdrop, but also consider her words. “And I don’t think Mako-chan would take that proposal as something sexual, as she would probably analyze why you said that.” The second-year blushed even harder the moment the word ‘sexual’ left the fluffy-haired girl’s mouth.

 _‘She can be extremely forward too… oh crap.’_ He softly pulled his hands away from hers. “That’s… kinda risky. What if-“

She held up her palm. “Stop. You’re already saying ‘what if’ again. Let me ask you something, since you seem to not be thinking very well at the moment: what would you lose from trying?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…I-I don’t know…?”

“Nothing, Ren-kun. At worst, she will reject you, but knowing her, you will still be friends. At best, she will accept your feelings and return them. It could be ‘worth a shot’, as Ryuji says.” She explained with a serious expression, but with a smile on the inside. It was interesting knowing both sides of the story and guiding them toward each other. Was this, somehow, what Futaba had planned from the start? She would have to ask in the group chat later. It seemed her words had finally reached Ren, as he stayed quiet, but with a determined look on his face.

“You’re right.” He said after a few moments. “I really don’t have anything to lose. Though, I would be heartbroken if she rejected.” He admitted with more confidence in his voice. “That’s a risk I have to take, though. I do need to think more before I do that, though...”

“Don’t worry, Ren-kun.” Haru said. “I think she will accept and return your feelings.”

“Why do you say that?” He asked curiously.

“It’s just a feeling I have.” She declared with a smile that made the boy happier, hopeful and confused.

* * *

 

 **Ore No Beko  
** **(Beef Bowl shop in Central Street)**

**7:12 P.M.**

A giggle rang through the busy beef bowl shop, drowned out by the white noise the people around the two girls made. The giggle didn’t disturb any of them, nor did they even hear it. The giggle came from a fluffy-haired girl talking to her friend. “And how did he react?” She asked curiously while still laughing.

“Let’s see…” Her red-eyed friend thought and continued. “Oh, when he saw me take off my hairband, he curled into fetal position and said ‘My whole life was a lie!’ dramatically!” She said trying not to laugh at the memory. Haru’s giggle turned into laughter as she envisioned her brave leader doing something so… dumb. “I was confused when it happened, but it’s a good story to make people laugh.” She said happily.

“So Ren-kun is pretty dramatic, from what you all have told me.” The Empress deduced while still giggling.

“He is, but he can also be pretty dumb sometimes. When I… *sigh* blackmailed the group to go after Kaneshiro, I heard Morgana meow something to Ren-kun. He immediately said, and I quote, ‘Something witty’ to me while smirking.” The rich girl started laughing again, while the council president sighed. “I guess my glare made him snap back to reality, because the next thing he said was to give them details.”

After calming down, the fluffy-haired girl said: “Well, your glare is quite scary, Mako-chan… you probably shouldn’t use it on your friends.”

“Well… I wasn’t exactly _friends_ with them back then... if this were a chapter in Jojo… I would have been more of a one-shot rival… and not the good kind… the kind that appears in Stardust Crusaders that is pretty annoying in the beginning.” The Priestess analyzed sadly, looking down. Her friend looked at her worried and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. The brunette held it for a second before removing it. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Mako-chan. Firstly, even if you were a rival in Stardust Crusaders, maybe you could have been the Kakyoin of the party. You started out as the villain, but became a valuable asset to the team." The youngest third-year analyzed, though that made the red-eyed girl look surprised. "I quite enjoy Jojo's Bizarre Adventure as well! But we still haven’t talked about the main subject!” She declared. The oldest third-year groaned and covered her face, which made the youngest of the two pull back a bit. “I mean… if you’re not feeling comfortable with the subject, we don’t need to talk about it…” She said sadly.

“No…”  Makoto replied with apprehension on her voice. “No, I told myself I would tell you. So… now I will.” She took a deep breath and lightly tapped her cheeks as her friend watched with expectation. “Well… I don’t know if you noticed but… God, this is embarrassing to say… I am…”

“…in love with Ren-kun, correct?” Haru ‘guessed’ correctly, making her friend’s blush become more visible. She also took a sip of the soda she ordered before continuing.

“Yes… I guess it is quite obvious through the way I’m acting, huh? Yes, I am in love with Ren-kun. I just… find him so attractive.” She started to admit with a constant blush, but also a happy smile that matched her friend’s. “I don’t know why, but everything he does ranges from adorable to dorky to attractive. What I just told you, of him being super dramatic when he found out about my hairband… I found that so dorky yet adorable. Almost like a child that discovered that Santa Claus wasn’t real. When we’re in the Metaverse and he does all these cool stunts, like rolling, flipping, back flipping, using his knife, his gun, his poses… everything looks so perfect, so graceful and so much like, when he's there, fighting all these Shadows, he’s letting loose and being himself. A murderous and psychotic kind of being loose, but we’re all to blame in that aspect.” She continued as the chocolate-eyed girl listened intently to her friend, nodding to some of her observations (including the murderous and psychotic one). “But Ren-kun isn’t just that. He is an incredible person to boot. He is the one who works the hardest out of all of us, not only in actual jobs, which he has about four or five from what he’s told me, but also in making sure he keeps in contact with everyone he met here in Tokyo. All while making these people happy, giving them gifts, helping them with their personal problems. He can be a bit nosy and pushy at times, but it’s always to make sure everyone is doing okay. I’d even go as far as to say he’s an incarnation of good will, especially considering he does all of that while also being our leader. He’s amazing.” She paused her unintentional gushing to take a bite out of her steak before it got cold, the brown-eyed girl doing the same with her curry. After eating for a bit, the ruby-eyed girl continued. “I also find him… extremely handsome. His wavy hair, his well-defined body, smooth skin and, most importantly, in my opinion, his beautiful, intense and deep gray eyes. He almost seems sculpted by someone with _really_ good taste. Or sculpted by someone that knew exactly what kind of person I’m attracted to.” She admitted, embarrassed and let out a small groan. “I sound like a swooning fourteen year old…”

“Well, I do believe talking about things we are passionate about would make us swoon at least a bit, don’t you think?” Haru said simply and matter-of-factly, which made her friend feel less embarrassed. “Besides, anyone would see how amazing Ren-kun is and would probably admire him for being himself. Well, those who don’t think they know him through rumors, that is.” She said with some anger in her voice while Makoto nodded.

“I agree, 100%. I do want to talk about that later. For now, I want to tell you my problem.”

“Please do, as I can’t see one now…”

“Well, the problem I see is that… I want to be with him. I want to hold him and tell him everything I feel and hear how he feels toward me. I want to hug him. I want… I want to kiss him. I want to be in a relationship with him. The problem I see is that… I would be a hindrance to him.” As the psychic user opened her mouth to speak, the headband user held her hand up. “Let me finish my train of thought first. I was thinking a lot about _why_ people want to have relationships… it’s something that’s always intrigued me.” The comment made the about to object girl stop and pay even more attention than she already was. “It’s a strong desire in a lot of people, but I always kept wondering why. A lot of scientists and Biology itself say we want to because of chemicals that your body releases so you can find a mating partner, and while this could be related to this, I don’t think it’s the only reason. I recently began studying this subject and discovered that many couples take a long time to… do it-” She said that last part with some embarrassment. “-and they’re not together just to procreate. So I decided to research more, but I only began researching yesterday, so I  haven’t had much time to do the research on the why, only on some couples’ thoughts on the subject.”

 _‘Researching on passion and love… Mako-chan is the type to get prepared for any situation, then.’_ Haru thought before commenting: “This is interesting, Mako-chan, but what’s your point? I still don’t see how you would be a hindrance to Ren-kun.”

The oldest of the two sighed sadly. “Relationships take up a lot of a person’s time. They also make some people see their friends less and less, while also making the couple focus a lot on each other. Of course, a healthy relationship doesn’t have those risks, but I know I have a very strong desire of being with Ren-kun, of holding him, k-kissing him… as I told you. I don’t want to take up too much of his time because he does so much to so many people. The way we are right now, we talk and he has time to do everything he can and wants to. I… this may be for the best.” She declared sadly while closing her eyes but with conviction. After a few seconds, she looked to her right to see her friend’s reaction. She was wide-eyed and looking directly into her own eyes, almost as if staring into her soul. The Priestess decided to conclude her point: “I want this… but I shouldn’t. His time’s too precious to be used on someone like me.”

The Empress widened even more. “On… someone like you? Mako-chan, you’re an amazing person! Why wouldn’t he want to spend time with you!?” She exclaimed a loudly, which made some people look over to their direction. The red-eyed girl closed her stance, almost as if trying to disappear from the stares. The brown-eyed girl took a deep breath, got up and turned to the staring eyes. “I’m sorry for raising my voice. Please, enjoy your meals. I won’t do it again.” She said while bowing. Slowly, the people around them returned to their prior activities, some whispering amongst themselves, some ignoring the two girls. She sat down again and shook her embarrassed friend’s shoulder as said friend slowly looked back. “I’m sorry for raising my voice, Mako-chan. But your thoughts aren’t correct. While yes, a relationship takes up a lot of time from both people, it’s something both of them enjoy. In your and Ren-kun’s case, he would still talk to everyone he normally does and save some time for you two. Besides, I am sure you noticed that sometimes Ren-kun seems really tired in some of our meetings?” She asked as her friend nodded. “While he is an amazing person to everyone, it must have a high toll on his health. I am sure he gets less sleep than his body needs because he stays up every night planning his next day or move for the group. You said that you would like to hug him, right?” The brunette nodded while looking down to her plate, slowly cutting and eating a piece of her steak. “Hugs are a manner of affection not only for lovers but also friends and family. They give many benefits to any person, like making a person happier, less scared and even reducing _stress_ _and_ _fatigue_.” The emphasis on the last three words had the desired effect of making her friend stop eating and look at her with a face of curiosity and shock.

“Hugs can do that?” She asked innocently. The youngest girl, while surprised her friend didn’t know that, simply nodded. “I guess that’s why I always felt better when hugging Buchi-kun…” She gasped after that comment, putting her hands on her face.

“There’s no shame in being a Buchi-kun fan, Mako-chan. I’m one too!” The fluffy-haired girl said happily as her teammate put her hands on her lap and relaxed her shoulders. “But you have experienced what I told you. Didn’t hugging Buchi-kun help you relax when you were scared or tense?” The ruby-eyed girl nodded. “The hug you gave me earlier today, while clumsy, made me feel much better. If it felt good to hug a plush bear, wouldn’t it also feel great to hug a person you truly like, dare I say love?”

“…” _‘She has a point… but what about-‘_

“Don’t go there, Mako-chan.” Haru interrupted. “Don’t think ‘buts’, think about what I said.”

“How did you-“

“Your shoulders are tense again and your eyebrows are furrowed.” The council president noticed what her friend told her and stopped. “Take a drink of your soda. Please.” Though the content was of a request, the phrase felt more like an order to Makoto, an order to which she complied. The cold drink made her feel a bit calmer. She thought as she drank about what the girl at her side told her. After she finished the glass, she turned to the girl and said:

“You’re right. It would feel really nice to hug him… what I want to know, still, is why I want to be with him.”

The Empress giggled, almost as if something hilarious was happening, and said: “Isn’t ‘being happy’ a good enough answer?”

The Priestess froze. She had never thought about it from this angle. She knew she liked spending time with Ren-kun, but now that she asked the axe-wielding girl, she noticed she was happy whenever he was around. And, based on what she knew, he also liked spending time with her, which could mean he was happy when she was around. The thought made her cheeks flare up, but this time a smile flared up along. _‘I… can make Ren-kun happy? Why does this make me happy, too…? Maybe… because I can make such a wonderful person like him happy. And… he deserves being happy.’_

She heard the giggle again by her side and looked to the psychic-user. “I guess you finally understood what I have been trying to tell you, huh?”

Her blush and smile were still present as she replied: “Yes! I think I finally get it! We make each other happy… right?”

“I don’t know. You tell me, Mako-chan.”

“Oh, come on! You really want me to admit something embarrassing like that?”

“You admitted your feelings to me. I don’t think there could be something more ‘embarrassing’ than that, right?”

“Touché… fine. Fine! I like spending time with Ren-kun! IT MAKES ME HAPPY!” She said loudly, which made everyone around them look at them again. Her face brightened up again. “Uh…” She said, not knowing how to get herself and Haru out of that predicament. “P-please don’t mind us… uhm…”

“It’s okay.” An old woman, looking 60 or older with short white hair, replied from a table. “I heard enough to know what’s going on. You’re getting ready to steal a boy’s heart, right?” She guessed correctly, which made the teen yelp and cover her face as her friend giggled. The old woman got up and went to the embarrassed teen’s side, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Everyone, let’s give this young woman some encouragement! She needs to break free from her cocoon!” She announced loudly, to which everyone in the restaurant started clapping and whistling.

“You go, girl!” A young sounding voice, probably belonging to a boy, said.

“Make sure to flatter him away!” An older voice, probably of an older man, cheered.

“You’re so cute, I’m sure he already likes you.” A calmer voice, probably of a girl, declared.

“Don’t be discouraged! If he doesn’t accept, you could stay with me!” A voice, probably of a young woman, joked/suggested.

“Make sure to just be yourself!” A serious voice, probably of a middle-aged man, cheered.

“That works wonders if the person likes you!” A gentle voice, probably of a middle-aged woman (that seemed closer to the last voice), agreed.

Makoto was overwhelmed with the amount of support she was getting from total strangers, as many more suggestions and words of encouragement were being launched rapid-speed to her. She was unable to hear all of them! Why were so many people that she didn’t know cheering her on to get with Ren-kun? And didn't them consider that she was a teenager and that schools didn't allow relationships?! She slowly put her hands to her sides and looked at the whole restaurant cheering her on. From teens to adults, from children to seniors, working alone or chatting with friends. Everyone was smiling at her, even the ones with their backs turned to her. She even saw the staff, two waiters and two cooks, cheering her on from two tables and the kitchen, respectively. She never felt so embarrassed, but so encouraged at the same time. “T-thank you, everyone! I-I-I p-promise I’ll bring him here to eat s-someday!” She declared with genuine fear and awe as everyone gave a final cheer and returned to their meals. After a sigh, she turned to the old woman. “I-I don’t know what to say…”

“Don’t say anything, sweetie. Just enjoy your meal and good luck with your boy! Make sure to bring him here so I can meet him!” She declared as she walked away. The red-eyed girl sat down and looked to her friend, which had a smirk on her face.

She gave a small nervous laugh. “I guess… you were right. I-I’ll try to talk to Ren-kun…”

“Calm down, Mako-chan. We still have more to discuss!” The Empress declared happily.

“There’s _more?_ ” She asked, dazed.

“Yes, but we will talk about that another day. For now, we should be getting home, as it is getting quite late.” She said. The brunette looked at her phone and saw it was almost 8:00 P.M..

“How does time move so fast?”

“I don’t know. But it was well spent, wasn’t it?”

“You know what?” Makoto said. “Yes, it was.” She said as both paid- well, as she tried to pay for her part, but Haru didn’t let her and paid everything. The moment they left the restaurant and were about to head to the train station, their phones vibrated. Both looked at each other curiously and opened the group chat, which had a video from Ren. Makoto downloaded it and rotated her phone so both she and the fluffy-haired girl could watch the video.

In the video, they could see Yusuke and Futaba arguing over a drawing in the background in one of Leblanc’s tables as two costumers (an old couple) on the table beside them watched the discussion. The video showed them both first before turning to behind the counter, where Ren was watching them alongside Sojiro, the old man's glasses in his left hand as his right covered his eyes in annoyance. The boy had his left elbow on the counter, his palm holding his chin as he looked at them with a mixture of boredom and interest (somehow). He then got up and went to wash the dishes, as you could hear Sojiro trying to stop the other two teenagers from disturbing the old couple. As that happened in the background, Ren’s hand (which had coffee powder) covered the video and placed/dropped the phone next to the sink in a way you could still see his face, which looked a bit… tired. Some of the coffee powder stayed on the screen, though it didn't block anything important. He placed his dirty hands on the sink, looked directly into the camera and raised three fingers on his right hand as he mouthed the word ‘targets’. He then sloppily grabbed the phone with his left hand and focused on the arguing teens, as they both stopped, but looked on edge with each other, before Yusuke’s eyes widened and he commented something about ‘Jojo’, which made Futaba’s eyes almost glow before she started excitedly talking about where the next episode would go, almost as if she forgot about the previous discussion. Sojiro, standing by the table, sighed, apologized to the other two costumers (who seemed very entertained with the two teens as they said it was no trouble and how interesting today’s youth was) and looked at the time. Morgana, who was looking at the situation from afar, started to speak while looking at his empty food bowl. “Three targets tomorrow. Leave your afternoon free, because these are important.” Sojiro looked at him, sighed and gave him some food, before turning to Ren and saying: “Turn that off and do the dishes. Please.” An ‘hm-hm’ could be heard close to the mic, as well as Futaba singing -- was it I Want You by Savage Garden? -- as the video ended.

The first thing the two girls thought was on their schedule on the next day. The second thing they noticed was how tired Ren looked. Almost as if he’d been working all day and couldn’t wait to rest. This deeply worried both girls.

“I’ll warn the staff that I will leave for the afternoon then.” Haru said. “You’ll make time too, right Mako-chan?”

“Of course. I’ll just have to stay up a little later tonight to write some instructions to the council. I got a little idea from what happened a while ago.” She responded thoughtfully.

The Empress’ face turned from serious to worry. “Okay, just make sure to sleep well, okay Mako-chan? You saw how Ren-kun was in the video. He might need some help in leading tomorrow…”

Makoto put her right hand on her chin. “Yes, I’ll make sure to sleep well. I’ll make sure he…he also sleeps well. I-I know Morgana is normally in charge of that, but maybe if I suggest…” She suggested, mumbling and sheepishly. The psychic user giggled.

“He will listen more easily to you?” She guessed, as her friend sheepishly nodded. “Then shall we head home? We really should prepare for tomorrow.”

“Yes, let’s.” The red-eyed girl responded with a firm tone as the duo started walking to the station. When they got there, both found seats and made small talk on the way, with Haru giving her friend some suggestions on how to approach Ren, which didn’t embarrass Makoto as she expected, instead making her carefully consider each scenario (maybe she started thinking about this as Queen?). They both got down on the same station and walked in the same direction for some minutes, enjoying each other’s company. When they got to a fork on the road, however, they had to (obviously) say their goodbyes.

“Thank you so much, again, for accepting my invitation, Haru! I feel like everything’s much clearer to me now.” Makoto stated happily. Haru smiled.

“It was no problem, Mako-chan! I also really enjoyed the stories you told me! I hope I’m able to share some of my own with you all someday…” She said with hopefulness on her voice.

“I’m sure you will. Every one of us likes you a lot. Don’t forget that.” The Priestess reminded the Empress seriously but gently as well.

“I won’t. Your friendship and support mean a lot to me.” She replied looking down with a smile that… did seem genuine, but also had some sadness in it. Her tone was also a mixture of happiness and… something else. Something… sad…? The brunette couldn’t pinpoint exactly what that meant, only that she felt worried for her friend. She’d love to ask her about it, but she couldn’t figure out a way to begin the conversation and it was late. At that moment, she remembered what the girl had told her earlier and, after a few seconds of silence, hugged her friend confidently, which let out a small gasp from the unexpected action.

“I don’t know what’s happening in your life or what you’re going through now, but I hope you understand we’re all here for you, okay?” She said softly. Haru returned the hug and let out a couple of sobs, as both friends held each other for a while, the only sound being heard through the empty street being the quiet sobs of the sweet girl. After a few moments, they let each other go. The fluffy-haired girl’s face was wet with her tears, but she had a small smile.

“Thank you so much, Mako-chan… I didn’t realize I needed that… And I’m sorry for worrying you.” She said apologetically.

“It’s okay, Haru. Focus on getting good rest tonight, all right?” The nuclear user responded in a motherly tone.

“I will… and I promise we’ll talk about this soon. Just… not now.”

“Of course. Well, see you tomorrow!” The ruby-eyed girl said before giving a final hug and turning to leave, as her friend did the same on the quiet evening street.

* * *

 

**Niijima Apartment**

**8:52 P.M.**

After a brief hello to her sister, a quick bath and a change to comfortable pajamas, Makoto decided to look in the group chat. She saw Ann and Ryuji had replied, saying OK, as well as… Futaba, for some reason. She sent the song she was singing before. Makoto decided to save it. It was a nice song. She suddenly remembered she had to finish writing her list of suggestions to the council members. So, she got to it.

**10: 13 P.M.**

_‘And lastly… what was it, again…? Oh… the… ending had to…'_ *yawn* _'give credit to the sources… right? Maybe… arrange them alphabetically…? Yeah… that should be…'_ *yawn* _'enough.’_ The tired Priestess thought as she sent the now completed message to Momo. She looked at the time and saw how late it was. _‘Already…? I need to sleep…’_ She got to her bed and as she was about to set her alarm and sleep, she saw she had a text from… Ren-kun?! She was a little more awake after seeing that. She tapped the icon and saw a single letter: M; sent 5 minutes ago. Understanding the message, she dialed his number. One ring… two rings… three rings… four… come on… five… and the line picked up.

“M…Makoto? Hey there…” He greeted, his tone low, rough and, as she expected, tired.

“H-hello, Ren-kun. Sorry for calling so late…” She replied, thinking of a lie as to why she was calling so late. “I-I’m sorry for calling so late… I was having some trouble sleeping and wanted to know if you had any tips…” She said, immediately regretting her choice of words. Sleeping tips!?

“Heh heh… sleeping tips? From me?” The Trickster replied with some amusement in his voice. “Well… I’d probably be the worst person you could ask about sleeping. Mona would be much better." He teased, which earned a protest from said cat. "But I… I think I saw something about this one of these days. Hold on." He said as she heard a sound that she assumed was him… typing on a computer…? Wait… the only place where he could be on a PC was… his table in his room… and he only used that table to... use the laptop and... oh no… was he making infiltration tools now?! “Found it. Let’s see… [plan a sleeping schedule… no ‘day-naps’… don’t sleep more on weekends… make the light on your room nonexistent…]" He mumbled in English. "Oh, here’s a useful one! Wait, no… argh, useless site!” He complained.  “Wait just a bit, Makoto.” She heard the sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard. The sound did make her a bit more at ease… or was it because Ren-kun was researching better ways of sleeping for her…? “Okay… [‘Cuddle time tea']..? What. [‘Herbal Bedtime Tea’]… who comes up with these names!? Oh, found it!” He exclaimed happily. “Chamomile tea! It helps your mind slow down and also has good benefits, like being antioxidant and antimicrobial! Do you have chamomile in your house?” He asked, sounding happy with himself.

“I do… but… I don’t want to make tea right now…” The ruby-eyed girl admitted. “I’m sorry for making you research for nothing, Ren-kun… but… I think your voice… was helping me calm down a bit…” She admitted without realizing. She heard nothing from the other side for a few seconds. “Ren… kun?”

“Y-yeah, I’m still here.” He replied.

“What are you… doing right now…?” She asked, struggling to stay awake. Why did his voice have to be so good to listen to?

“I… I was making infiltration tools for tomorrow.” He admitted. “Before you say anything, I know it’s late, but I’m almost done. I’ll go to sleep as soon as I finish here.”

“But… it’s…” She said as she checked the time on the clock (that she nearly forgot she had) on her nightstand. “…it’s 10:26 already… you really should… *yawn* sleep now…” She said groggily.

“Holycrapyouryawnissocute…”

“I’m… sorry, I didn’t understand… *yawn* you…” She asked.

“I… okay. I promise I’ll go to sleep now. It is pretty late, as you said.” He said, dodging his previous statement without her noticing. “But I think the one that needs it the most is… *yawn* you, Makoto.” He said in a lower tone than before. “Dammit, now I’m… *yawn* yawning!”

She chuckled. “I’ll… only sleep… when you go as well…” She declared boldly.

“Uh… okay then… just… wait a second.” He said as she heard the sound of the microphone being picked up, then of it being placed in something… soft (maybe?) before some ruffling sounds, a thud, a small complaint from a boyish voice and finally, the phone being picked up again. “I’m back. I’m lying on my bed now.”

“I heard…”

For the next few moments, both stayed in silence, neither sure how to end the conversation. Yet… while the silence was somewhat uncomfortable, it was also… soothing. It calmed them both. Almost as if… they were... sharing a bed...

“Ren-kun…?”

“Yes…?”

“Please stay… on the line. I want… I want to wake up… and hear your voice.”

“That’s…” He said with some fear in his voice.

“That’s…?” She asked.

“It’s… unexpected… only that.”

“Is it… a bad request…?”

“…”

“…Ren-kun?”

“No. It’s… a good request. But I don’t want to make your phone bill too expensive.” She let a small, tired complaint escape her lips. “You wake up at 7:00 A.M., right?”

“I do…”

“I’ll call you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise on my heart.”

“I’ll keep you to it… *yawn*”

“You should sleep now. I’ll be going too.”

“Al-*yawn*-right… Good night, Ren…” She said as she nearly fell asleep.

“Good night, Makoto.” Ren whispered in a low tone sent her over the edge; finally making her sleep, phone in hand.

* * *

 

He ended the call, activated his alarm to 6:55 A.M. and put his phone next to the window. His heart beating fast, his cheeks burning and his mind, while tired, was spinning. He felt relief and fear at the same time at the implications of what Makoto’s words meant. But… her cute yawns did make him feel sleepy too…

He closed his eyes and immediately slept, his mind projecting images of the beautiful girl that liked him so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 1: added some more thoughts to Makoto when she's in her memory and made some conversations have some more phrases. And Jojo references.  
> I just updated my profile and linked my Twitter! If you'd like to see it, here's the link: https://twitter.com/Real_Ian_MD  
> This chapter took longer to make because:  
> 1) Sometimes I didn't have much inspiration  
> 2) Sometimes, I didn't have much time (because of homework and exams [that are OVER I ONLY HAVE ONE MORE DAY OF SCHOOL THIS YEAR FINALLY])  
> 3) Sometimes I was lazy and didn't wanna write  
> 4) I was watching all 109 episodes of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (excluding Golden Wind. I'll see it when all episodes release)
> 
> But I Want You really gave me an idea of how this chapter should go, especially the chorus: "Oh~ I want you, I don't know if I need you but oh~ I'm dying to find out~". It really inspired me and I listened to it a lot while writing this!  
> The manga "Mementos Mission" also helped me define Ren a bit better. There are only two chapters out right now, but the first one's really good! I still need to read the second... https://mangadex.org/title/31409/persona-5-mementos-mission  
> I also found this AMAZING PLAYLIST with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. OF. PERSONA. 5. It has 975 videos! All of them varying from 1-8 or more minutes, so you can find some specific moments! I'll definitely use this a LOT when writing! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTh8pKsl10d5Qj0b_9ky54JZS0acnzaxd  
> As always, here are the links that I researched for this chapter:  
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PXw5tM6fg3diwZIcTsZ3qG7UllDGI2O7P_4uuhwUpvs/edit#gid=1945643665  
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/72198400260615118/  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoJo%27s_Bizarre_Adventure:_Diamond_Is_Unbreakable  
> https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2036.html  
> https://www.healthline.com/health/hugging-benefits#5  
> https://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2016/september2016/how-to-get-a-better-nights-sleep  
> https://www.thesleepjudge.com/tea-recipes-better-sleep/  
> https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2017-03-03/.112933


	4. That was... unexpected...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day starts off fine enough for both, but will it stay that way?  
> Considering it's their lives, the day will become weird or crazy in a couple of minutes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS TIME I WAS FASTER!!! ...I think.  
> Either way, this chapter works a bit differently than the others... you'll have to read to find out what I mean!  
> I don't really have a specific song that helped me write this one, since I always hear so many, but this one definitely helped the most in a specific thought process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ED7kzAmnAY (Confession/Secret from the P5 OST)  
> This one also helped in some calmer moments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwoebhTJ2Do&t=14s (Let's Be Honest from the P5DIS OST)  
> These ones aren't like the other songs I normally listen to, nor NOT from Persona 5, but for this specific chapter, they helped a lot!  
> All right, on with the show!

He felt so nice to cuddle with. Well, it wasn’t exactly cuddling they were doing. It was… more. She couldn’t even believe she’d managed to convince him to it. His smooth skin felt almost as nice as the nicest cotton in the world as both were lying on her bed. His strong hands were gentle as they held her hips. She kept hugging him as he kept moving his hands up and down her body. It felt really nice, especially since it was him who was with her. She opened her eyes and saw him looking back at her, eyes filled with passion. She was feeling the passion coming from him and her own to him. She couldn’t resist and pulled him in for a deep kiss, to which he happily kissed her back with a low chuckle that sent chills down her spine. His hands suddenly moved lower. She heard a small sound. She gasped at the feeling, not expecting such bluntness, but deciding to retaliate as she grabbed his butt, an action that made her red, but nice. He then opened his mouth to speak.

And she did not expect what he said to her:

“[Anytime I need to see your face I just close my eyes and I am taken to a place where your crystal mind and magenta feelings take up shelter in the base of my spine-]“

“[Sweet like a chic-a-cherry cola~~]”

* * *

 

**Niijima Apartment**

**7:00 A.M.**

She woke up groggily from her sleep, listening to the rapid-fire English song. The song was nice but… wait… Ren-kun was calling her? Why-

She remembered the events of last night.

_And her dream._

“…Goddammit.” She let out under her breath. “All… *yawn* right, Makoto. Calm down. Breathe in, breathe out…” She said to herself as she did as she was told (by herself). She closed her eyes as she breathed, then opened them again with determination. “Let’s go.” She said as she raised her phone to eye level as the singer sang:

“[Oh I want you, I don’t know if I need you, but-]“ _*Beep*_

“Hello?” She asked shakily but gently.

 _“Good morning. I was worried you wouldn’t pick up…”_ She heard Ren loud and clearly through the phone’s speaker. She felt a calmness at hearing his voice… he had a really nice voice. Then the dream came back to make her mind blank. And red from embarrassment.

_‘Calm down… don’t think about… **THAT** … just… think about Ren-kun. He’s probably in his bed right now... In his pajamas... Without his glasses…’_

“…”

_“…”_

“…”

_“Makoto?”_

“Oh, sorry. I… think I’m still waking up. *yawn*”

 _“ᵀʰᵃᵗ ʸᵃʷⁿ ᶦˢ ᵍᵒᶦⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵏᶦˡˡ ᵐᵉ...”_ She heard far away from the phone. This time, however, she was able to understand what he said. She felt her cheeks flare up. Did he also find her cute?! But… she wasn’t as cute as Ann or Futaba. It was unachievable for her. Why…? All right, question later, talk to Ren-kun now. He DID call her at 7:00 A.M. to wake her up.

“I’m sorry for making you call me this early in the morning, Ren-kun. I don’t know why I asked that of you yesterday…” She said apologetically.

 _“It’s no problem.”_ He said honestly. _“I did need to wake up a bit earlier to make sure… oh no.”_ He said with a hint of desperation.

“What is it? Are you okay?” The Priestess asked worriedly.

 _“Sojiro’s trying the Ogon pepper again. I have to stop him! Sorry to jet, but I need to stop him!”_ He said desperately as she heard the sound of ruffling cloth.

“Ogon…?” The red-eyed girl asked out-loud, doing her best to ignore the sounds of ruffling cloth. _“Can’t explain…”_ The Fool said as she kept hearing the ruffling sounds and a confused meow in the background. _‘Is he… changing…? Augh, now’s not the time to get flustered over clothing or… lack thereof, Makoto…!’_ she thought desperately. _“I’m sorry, Makoto, but I have to go make sure Sojiro doesn’t get carried away with the pepper!! I’ll talk to you at school!”_ He explained desperately and with a hint of… fatigue in his voice.

“All right then, Ren-kun. See you later!” The High Priestess said as naturally as she could (which wasn’t much) as she hung up. She went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and saw her cheeks were still red. Great. Just great. Not only was she not able to speak normally to Ren and not only was she in love with him, she now dreamed of him holding her. She brushed her teeth and washed her face when she noticed something weird: her ringtone was normally Last Surprise by Lyn, but today it was… was it I Want You? Even the name couldn’t give her peace of mind. After she was done with the bathroom (she spent a bit more time due to… she couldn’t even believe it), she went to her bedroom, greeted her Buchimaru-kun plushy and checked her cell’s ringtone. As she suspected, she accidentally set I Want You as her ringtone instead of simply downloading it. She changed the ringtone back to Last Surprise and changed. As she calmed down due to her daily pre-school routine, she remembered the song again. As she ate her breakfast, noticing her sister wasn’t home, she decided to search for a lyric video. As she read the fast-paced lyrics while the song played, she noticed that the song fit with her situation really well. A little TOO well for her taste… it’s almost as if this group had read her mind! Back in 1997… those weird Futaba and Ren thoughts were starting to become part of her too, huh? When she finished her breakfast, she quickly washed the dishes, grabbed her school bag, made sure everything was in and left for the train. On the way, she thought _‘Ren-kun seemed pretty distraught… especially for early in the morning. I hope he manages to get some good breakfast before coming to school…’_

* * *

 

**In front of Class 2-C**

**7:52 A.M.**

“Hello, Ryuji! How are you doing today?” Makoto greeted the boy, who was leaning against the wall next to the door to his classroom… tapping away at his phone’s screen while wearing headphones. She managed to see a small yellow square with a poker face jump into a yellow floating ball and then being launched into a triangle before the dyed blonde groaned and put away his phone, finally noticing his friend waiting for him.

“Oh, sup Makoto. Sorry about that… this level’s really freakin’ hard.” He explained as he offered her a high-five, which she took. “Anyway, I’m doin’ good. How ‘bout you? Anything interesting happened?”

She thought for a bit before answering: “No, not really. I have been pretty busy with the other council members, though.”

“Oh, really? With what?” The runner asked. As the red-eyed girl was about to answer, however, both heard some people talking loudly over in another classroom, but the third-year didn’t seem to mind it much. The second-year got annoyed. “Man, this early in the morning and they’re already screamin’ at each other? They’re only gonna make their day worse…” He commented before uncharacteristically starting to pay attention to the discussion, as if something caught his attention... maybe one of the voices? Both noticed some people were also gathering near the class across from them. Said class was class 2-D.

The brunette, noticing his change in behavior, decided to pay attention too and noticed… Ann’s voice? Mishima’s too… that’s why he stopped to listen. She started to make out the words…

 _“This is what I don’t get! You came all the way from the other side of the building just to scream at him!?”_ Ann shouted _very_ angrily.

 _“Not without purpose! The creep seems to think he can just act normal and quiet and we’ll all just accept him! Well, that isn’t the case! That fake crying a few days ago didn’t fool anyone, you hear?!”_ A boy’s voice echoed through the hallway, even louder than Ann’s. _“You can’t just pretend to be shaken up by this all of a sudden! If you’re a real man, you would’ve taken it and kept quiet!”_

 _“And you expected him to keep quiet after 7 months of constant talk of him?!”_ Mishima’s voice echoed this time, with a mix of anger and confusion. _“I’m impressed he didn’t break down sooner! You and your friends have been doing a pretty good job to make his life a living hell!”_ He continued with the confusion gone and full anger taking its place. Ryuji and Makoto, without even saying a word or looking at each other, started to sprint towards class 2-D, which had quite a crowd in front of its door due to the loud argument.

“Excuse me, this is urgent!” The council president said as she made her way through the sea of students, already knowing the context based on her knowledge and involvement on the previous days. She saw a few leaving the class (which made her and Ryuji’s job of getting closer much easier *sarcasm*) and heard a few comments as she approached the door.

“What’s all this screaming? Can they stop?” She made her way through a few students before more blocked the way. Ryuji pulled her towards him and pushed her forward.

“Oh, so now he needs someone to stand up to him? What a coward.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him along the way, trying to make sure both managed to get to the classroom.

“What’s going on?” She felt his hand slip away from her own.

“Why is Ann-chan defending HIM?” She didn’t stop, but decided to look around to see if she could find her teammate.

“Mishima…? Didn’t think he had the guts to stand up to something.” Where was Ryuji? Did he get lost in the middle of the crowd?

“Ann-chan…?” No time to worry about him. She needed to enter the classroom. She started to get annoyed at the sea she was facing. _‘Come on, let me through!’_

“Give him a chance to explain yourself, you loud asshole!” She almost lost her temper at this moment, even though she agreed with the comment, at a loud _thug_ sound. The sound of a blocked punch. Right after that, however, she heard a second sound of a punch actually landing as a lot of students from class 2-D started to scream and run away from the class, throwing anyone and anything in front of them away. She lost her temper at this moment.

“ ** _I SAID LET ME THROUGH!!!_** ” Makoto shouted as loudly and as fiercely as she could, making all the comments, screams, remarks and people running from the situation stop, as every student froze at her command. The entire school may have heard it, but she didn’t care as she pushed some students out of her way. She stormed into class 2-D and saw what she feared: three students were surrounding Ren, who was sprawled on the ground, his glasses shattered next to him. Ann, who had a red cheek, was trying to pull one of them away as Mishima looked in horror, unsure of what to do. For a moment, she stopped. **_Her fear had come true._** She shook her head violently. She couldn’t let that stop her. The third-year, now on her Queen mode, rushed toward her injured friend and kneeled beside him as she nearly punched one of the three bullies. She didn’t even care that one of them could hit her; she had to make sure Ren was okay. She gently but quickly raised him and saw his nose was bleeding. “Ren! Are you awake?!” She asked desperately, to which she only got a weak whimper as an answer. _‘At least he didn’t faint… assholes…’_

“Hey! We weren’t done here, _Miss Prez_!” One of the bullies said as he looked down on her. “This criminal needs to learn a lesson on how to be a man! On how to take a punch!” He said as he threw a punch toward the president, making every student around them (on the other side of the doors or windows) gasp. She grabbed his hand on autopilot, while gently placing Ren on the ground, and rose up, making sure her would-be aggressor couldn’t set his hand free. “What the hell?!” He exclaimed in shock. One of his comrades tried to grab her from behind, to which she reacted by ducking under his arms and elbowing him hard on his stomach, making the boy wheeze. The third one tried to come closer to her, but at that moment, two hands held each of his arms: Ryuji and Haru managed to enter the classroom somehow. In that brief moment, Makoto also noticed Mishima wasn’t inside the classroom anymore. _‘Good. This can’t keep going for much longer. And for self-proclaimed “tough men”, they really aren’t anything special.’_ She thought with a scowl as she looked at the door. She quickly glanced toward her two other friends and saw Ann had managed to restrain the one she elbowed by placing him on the ground and holding his arms with her knee and her right hand, as the left hand weighed his shoulder down. Queen looked at the bully whose hand she was holding and saw that there were two other students holding his other arm. _‘That’s why nothing happened to me.’_ She gave them a quick nod before getting up, going by their side as she kept holding the unknown boy’s hand and kicked his back, making him fall down face first onto the ground before doing the same as Ann. Ryuji and Haru also managed to pin down the third bully. She turned to the two boys that were restraining the other arm and said “I don’t know you two, but thank you. Now, Mishima has probably gone off to call a teacher. I want you two to call Principal Akira. Understand?” She said in a commanding tone, to which both boys nodded. She looked over to the glassed boy’s position, seeing he hadn’t moved a centimeter. Her gaze went to Haru, who nodded and kept the boy she was on top of pinned down, giving her a chance to go over by the Fool’s side. Ryuji kept holding the second student down with ease. She gently grabbed her crush by the sides and put his head on her lap, worried about him. She saw his nose was still bleeding. She turned to the rest of the frozen students and asked in a commanding tone “Does anyone here have cotton, toilet paper, anything I can use to stop the bleeding?”

“I do!” A girl with a familiar voice shouted from the crowd.

“Then bring it over here, quickly!”

“Yes, ma’am!” She said seriously. The crowd split up so she could go to the president’s side. In the seconds it took the girl to get close to her, Makoto noticed that everyone staring had different emotions on what just happened: some were scared; some were curious; some didn’t care now that the fighting was over and some were whispering among themselves. Great, another topic she would hear to no end on the next couple of days. “Here you go!” The girl, who wore glasses, offered her a ball of cotton, which she quickly took and looked back at the trickster.

“Thank you.” She said, not taking her eyes away from the boy as she divided the ball into two pieces and put them in his nose. She noticed that there wasn’t much bleeding, so she calmed down a bit and started to run her fingers through his hair, almost if doing this would make him feel better. His expression seemed to become softer, almost as if he went to sleep, which made the third-year have several mixed feelings: rage, worry, sadness, happiness… a roller coaster of emotions. She finally understood the expression’s power. The red-eyed girl knew people would stare, but she couldn’t care less. She looked to her side, seeing who her helper was and noticed it was Atsuko Hashimoto, the president and only member of the newspaper club. “Thank you again, Hashimoto-san. I’m glad you had cotton on you, else I’d have to ask someone to get toilet paper, which isn’t as sanitary…”

“It’s okay, Makoto-senpai. Though, I already told you to just call me Atsuko!” She said with a hint of annoyance.

“I’m sorry about that. I’ll pay attention from now on, Ha-I mean, Atsuko-san.” The headband wearer said apologetically. The other girl sighed.

“The ‘san’ is unnecessary, but this is a step up…” She mumbled under her breath. “Mishima, Takanashi and Sakoda have already called Kawakami-sensei and Principal Akira. They’ll both make this right.” She reassured to the third-year, who nodded. “By the way, don’t your friends need help?” The glasses girl asked concerned. Makoto looked at them and saw they were doing… fine wasn’t the proper word to choose, but they weren’t having trouble. They all looked back at her and nodded, holding the three squirming boys down firmly.

“Considering their strength and how long it will take Kawakami-sensei and Principal Akira to arrive, I’d say they are doing fine. I trust in their strength.” She commented calmly to Atsuko, who nodded. “I am concerned with Ren-kun, however… I hope the punch didn’t hurt him much…”

“You know, if I could, I would definitely pin these three down and teach them a lesson. How could they do this to Amamiya-kun?” She asked angrily but curiously at the same time, scribbling something in her notebook.

“I’m not sure… he doesn’t deserve any of this.” The council president said, pulling the Fool closer to her, almost hugging him. “Damn it, I should be paying more attention to this, but I kept worrying about my personal problems!” She said in frustration. The long-haired brunette looked at her with sympathy and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Personal problems are important too. This guy is the living proof of that, based on what I know.” She said pointing to Ren with her pen. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but if you need any help, I’m here, alright?” She offered.

Before the third-year could answer, Kawakami and Akira came into the classroom running. “All right, everyone settle down! Ryuji, Ann, Haru, you can let these three go now.” The teacher said, to which the three nodded and let the bullies go. “All of you go with Principal Akira to his office. He wants to talk to you. Mishima, Takanashi and Sakoda are all waiting for you there.” She said seriously, pointing at the three boys, Ryuji, Ann and Haru. All nodded, half in fear and half calmly as they left to his office. The man who said office belonged to was kneeling by Makoto, Ren and Atsuko, seeing the boy with a concerned expression.

“How is he?” The tall man asked concerned to the council president.

“He was awake, but it seems he’s sleeping now. He must be tired. His nose was bleeding, but it seems it has stopped. I don’t think it’ll be necessary to take him to the nurse’s office.” She responded honestly and seriously. He nodded grimly.

“Good. Then I will help you carry him to my office. I want to talk to you two after he’s feeling better.” The black-haired man said, gently grabbing the boy by his sides and carrying him bridal style outside the classroom, with the boy’s crush following suit, her expression a mix of relief and worry. Before he left, however, he turned to Atsuko and said: “Could I also talk to you after I’m done with these two? There’s something I need to tell you and something I want your help with.”

“Oh, of course!”

“Splendid!” The principal rejoiced before turning to the crowd and said confidently. “I know this is all quite crazy, but I want you all to return to classes as if nothing happened. The teachers and me are going to make sure nothing like this happens again, so don’t fret! Okay?” The students nodded, seemingly feeling more at ease. “Good! Now, if you will all excuse us, we need to take care of a few problems!” He said, bidding a final farewell before leaving for his office, the headband girl impressed at how well the principal managed a crowd. As they walked through the hall, Makoto heard the whispers of the students. This time, however, they weren’t only of distaste towards the infamous delinquent.

“Is he going to be all right?”

“I hope so… isn’t he being-“

“Hmph. Wuss.”

“How can you say that?! Look at him!”

“Listening to these rumors for months and now being punched… poor guy.”

“I don’t care about Amamiya, but THESE THREE ARE ASSHOLES!!!”

“Not so loud, girl!”

“Eh, I don’t care.”

“Makoto-senpai! You’re awesome!!!”

“You sure did show them not to mess with you!”

“MARRY ME MAKOTO-SENPAI!!!”

“I WANNA HUG REN-KUN!!!”

“Are you all stupid?! The guy’s a criminal!”

“Shut up, Hayate, no one cares.”

“He got what he deserved.”

“No one deserves that!”

“Criminals should be punished!”

“What the hell…”

“So she WAS buddy-buddy with him!”

“What if that was with you?! Would you say that then?!”

“I’d have hit him harder.”

“I hope he’s not too hurt.”

The conversations certainly were… interesting. She never felt such stress and relief at the same time, walking down the hallway and going down the stairs to the Principal’s office. She noticed that around 80% or so of students were staring and commenting, with the teachers trying to call them back into the classrooms. Half seemed to not comment (or comment about how much they hated him) and half showed support not only for Ren-kun, but for her as well, something she wasn’t expecting. Did these people have a change of heart? Or did they not hate the infamous transfer student, but never commented anything? She’d have to make sure to tell… well, they probably already heard everything. The number of bad comments still made her anxious, though. And she wasn’t sure if her calculations were correct; there were many students talking at once, after all…

As they neared the office, Akira went into one of the classrooms, while still holding Ren, came back with another student bringing two chairs and placing them next to the door. He put the tired boy in one of them and thanked the student with a handshake before turning to Makoto. “He’s so tired he went to sleep! Heh heh… Poor guy…” He said with a smile, but also some pity in his voice. The girl looked down, feeling bad for her friend. She wanted to help him, but there was nothing she could do right now. “Makoto.” The man said suddenly and seriously, which made the girl look at him. “I know you’re feeling bad you couldn’t do anything about this. Heck, I also feel bad for not doing anything before things came to this. But it’s already happened, so let’s do our best to fix this.” He kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to start by talking with those nine and hearing what they have to say. You can start by making sure Ren is comfortable and okay. Does that sound good?”

She sighed, a mix of relief and sadness escaping her lips. “Yes. I did want to keep an eye on him and was going to ask you anyway. Thank you for considering my wish, Principal Akira.” She said as she bowed to him. He gave her a funny look.

“Come on, don’t do that. I’m not a boss for you to forcefully respect. I’m your principal, someone whose primary function should be to make sure the students are happy. In that regard, I’m the one who should be bowing to you!” He said happily and bowed, which made her chuckle a bit. “Stay with him. I know you need some time to think, too.” He said as he opened the door and finally entered his office, leaving the boy and girl alone in their chairs.

She got up and made sure the boy was comfortable in his chair. She saw he was indeed sleeping, but he didn’t look calm anymore as she hoped he would. His face still had an expression that reminded her of failure and his eyebrows and eyes twitched from time to time. She sat down again and pulled his head toward her shoulder, putting her left hand on his right shoulder. She felt it relax. She felt her cheeks burn, but her being flustered wasn’t what mattered right now. She had to take care of this boy. The boy who had sacrificed so much of himself for others. She started running her fingers through his hair, enjoying the feel of each strand: soft, yet firm. She looked at his face and saw his eyebrows were no longer furrowed, nor twitching. She felt more relieved at that, but her own feeling of tenseness didn’t leave her heart. She was afraid. Of oh so many things: the parley, her relationship with him, her wanting to become his special person, her not knowing how to approach him on the subject, her inexperience with her own feelings and actions regarding said feelings, Ren’s feelings and well-being, the events of today, the parley, the Principal’s reaction, the student’s reaction… her sister’s reaction when she heard of everything… everything. Everything in her life, and on Ren’s too, was demanding attention in a way that she didn’t expect. Things she didn’t know were connected suddenly showed their connections. Feelings she didn’t know she could feel suddenly blossomed inside her. People she didn’t know gave her tips. Her closest friends proved why they were such every day as they helped her and him on their own way. Situations out of her control presented themselves every day. The boy in her arms kept his crazy lifestyle without complaining and she wanted to help him, but didn’t know how to approach him on the subject. There was nothing she could do to stop everything going on in her life. She could only try and solve each problem, one at a time. Even then, she wasn’t sure which problems were more important to solve first… she wasn’t even sure if her current course of action was correct. Should she focus on something else? Should she try and help Ren by talking with his so-called ‘Confidants’? Should she help him by simply listening? Should she keep on her parley project?

As she thought, she looked back to her crush. His face was now peaceful. He breathed calmly, his body was relaxed and he finally seemed in peace. She smiled, genuinely, for the first time on that day. While she didn’t have the answers to all her problems, she could make Ren sleep better. She placed her head on top of his and closed her eyes, making sure that her (hopefully) soon to be lover would be kept warm and safe. She felt her heart speed up a bit, but she didn’t have any shame on her actions. She felt like she was doing exactly what she wanted to do.

* * *

 

**8:14 A.M.**

He felt… calm. Peaceful. His nose hurt, but he was feeling so at ease that it didn’t even bother him. He noticed he was awake, but didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t want to. He just wanted to feel calm. He must’ve dosed off after… oh no! Startled, he got up from his chair (?) in a single leap, hearing one yelp and two gasps. His vision was blurry and he became lightheaded due to how fast he got up, so he sat down again, closing his eyes and putting his hand on his forehead. He felt two gentle hands hold his shoulders as an angelic voice asked: “Ren-kun, are you okay?”

That voice calmed him down. “Y-yeah… just got up too fast. Sonic speed…” He assured the feminine voice while trying to joke. After a few seconds of recovery, he slowly opened his eyes and noticed two things: firstly, his glasses weren’t on him anymore. Secondly, the angelic voice belonged to Makoto, who was looking at him with concern on her face, her hands holding him gently. He looked into the red orbs that fascinated him so much and gave her a smile. He felt happy at seeing her and wanted to make her feel better. She smiled back at him, a full genuine smile, as she gave a small, relieved sigh. Both kept looking into each other’s eyes, not thinking. Just feeling. Makoto put her hand on Ren’s cheeks, caressing them as he leaned toward them, closing his eyes. After a few seconds, she let him go. He looked at her confused, before noticing that her cheeks were flaring up as she looked sheepishly to the ground. He looked to the side and saw the Principal and Atsuko looking at the two of them, both sitting in chairs. His own cheeks flared up as he also looked down and scratched the back of his neck. “You know… you could’ve told us you were here…” He said weakly and embarrassed to the two people in front of him, embarrassed at his self-implication that he and Makoto were having a moment (which they were).

“I’m sorry, Ren-san, but we didn’t want to interrupt you two,” Akira said with some amusement in his voice. “but now that you’re awake, I can rest easy knowing you’re fine, considering you can joke.” He continued with relief in his voice. “I know you just woke up, but please, could you tell us your version of what happened? All the others told me their point of view.” He asked sincerely. The frizzy-haired boy gave a small sigh before adjusting himself on the chair. He noticed Atsuko had her notebook and pen on the ready.

 _‘She must’ve already written down the other’s stories.’_ “Well… I almost arrived late today because Sojiro decided to put too much Ogon pepper in his curry, so I had to help him make some more before he inadvertently burned somebody from the inside out. Don’t want to turn any of his clients into dragons because of pepper.” He said seriously, to which the principal gave a small chuckle. The Fool smiled a bit and continued, now seriously again: “That took longer than I expected since I was tired, and I ended up losing the first train, so I had to wait for the second one, which took longer to arrive. After that, I arrived at… 7… 49 A.M. I normally arrive at 7:35 and make sure to keep my studies in check, so I was a little afraid I’d end up not being able to finish a piece of homework I began yesterday.” He looked at the three to make sure they listened to everything. Principal Akira was looking intently at the boy, Atsuko was quickly writing on her notebook and Makoto looked at him, her expression a mix of concern and deep in thought. “I quickly sat down, greeted Ann and Mishima, got my stuff out of my bag and began to finish my late homework when those guys showed up. They began mocking me, so I ignored them. After a while, it got on my nerves and I asked them to please stop, as it was very rude on their part.” At that moment, the newspaper club president stopped writing and gave the ‘delinquent’ a questioning stare. “I try to be polite to everyone at first, even if the person’s not being polite to me.” He answered, to which she slowly nodded, not really understanding his logic, and going back to writing. “They laughed at my attempt and one of them grabbed my pencil and broke it. At that moment, Ann and Mishima intervened, starting to talk angrily at the three. The guys just retorted with insults toward me, which made them both very angry. After two or three back and forths, Ann and Mishima started to scream at the guys, so I got up to try and stop them when one of them came for me. Ann blocked his punch, but another one slapped her and the third one punched me in the face.” All the listeners’ stares intensified, obviously towards the three that hit the boy telling the story and the model. “I fell down; my glasses fell by my side. The one that punched me stepped on them as he chuckled, calling me a chicken. At that moment, I heard the sound of justice.” He said cheesily as he looked toward the red-eyed girl. “You coming in screaming ‘ **I said, let me through!** ’ At that moment, I knew everything was going to be okay.” She looked wide-eyed at him as he grabbed her hand and gave it a small rub with his thumb. “I felt more relaxed at that moment, especially when you came to make sure my nose wasn’t broken or anything. But I also felt tired… so, I inadvertently slept when you put my head in your lap. I’m sorry… I should’ve helped. I shouldn’t have left this all for you.” He told the girl seriously, almost as if he were speaking only to her. She shook her head as a “no”.

“Ren-kun, there was nothing you could have done. Even if you were awake, your nose would be hurting and bleeding. If you tried to help, you could have ended up even more hurt. Don’t blame yourself.” She said as she tried to mimic what he did to her clumsily. He chuckled sadly.

“You’re right. Still-“

“Don’t.” She interrupted. “Don’t blame yourself over things that are out of your control, Ren-kun. Please.” She asked gently. After a couple moments of thought, he nodded slowly.

“It matches up, right?” Akira asked Atsuko, looking at her notes. She nodded.

“Yup. His version matches up and even has more details the others didn’t mention, like him asking the three to stop politely.” She replied as she flipped through the pages she kept the notes on.

“Perfect!” The tall man said happily. “These poor guys have been waiting for a while. I need to make sure everything is taken care of. Makoto-san, Ren-san, could you please come inside with me? You’re free to return to your classes, Atsuko-san.” He told them all. They all nodded.

“If you need my help, just call; okay Principal Akira, Makoto-san, Ren-kun?” The long-haired girl commented. They all nodded. “Then I’m off! See you!” She said as she left waving; they all waved back. After that, the black-haired man opened the door to the two teens, who entered and saw the other nine students were still there waiting. Ryuji, Ann, Haru, Mishima, and the two boys, Daisuke Takanashi and Yoshimori Sakoda. The three others were silent, looking down. Everyone, except the three, looked over when the door opened. They all smiled.

“Yo, man! How’re you doing?” Ryuji asked with a big smile, but some concern on his voice.

“Is your nose hurt?” Ann asked, concerned.

“Have you checked it, Mako-chan?” Haru asked in the same tone as Ann.

“Yes, I have. He’s fine, right, Ren-kun?” She said calmly, clasping her hands behind her back and nodding towards the boy, who smiled to reassure everyone.

“Yup! It did hurt, but hey, I guess I heal fast! I’m kinda like Wolverine!” He said confidently with a smirk. The six teenagers gave a sigh of relief. Ren looked over and saw the two people whose heart he’d helped change. “Oh, hello Daisuke, Yoshimore! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you! How’s it going?” He said happily, offering them both a fist bump, which both took.

“Oh, we’re both fine. Sorry we didn’t talk much to you these past few months, but we’ve been busy with our mission.” Daisuke explained calmly. Everyone besides Ren and Sakoda looked confused at his phrase. Mission?

“In fact, it took us to these guys.” Sakoda said as he pointed to the three gloomy, quiet teenagers. “We were gonna try and stop them, but we were too late. Sorry, Ren-san.” He said, scratching his neck. The glassed boy gave a small chuckle.

“Hey, no need to worry. What’s in the past is in the past.” He said reassuringly as he put his hands on the boys’ shoulders. “Besides, Principal Akira seems like a really nice guy. You should talk to him about this!” The two nodded, looking over to said principal.

“We can talk all we want later, boys and girls. Now, we need to resolve the situation here!” He said as he sat down on his chair. “Well, I believe I have a pretty good idea of what happened. Ren-san was minding his business when you three came over to his class and decided to sabotage his work and bully him.” The three didn’t even say anything, just kept looking down. “This is serious. I want you three to imagine this: imagine three random students came to your classroom and did the same to you. How would you feel?” He asked honestly, not angry, but trying to reason with them.

“I’d just hit them.” One of the three said. The other two nodded.

“It IS an option. The problem is that not everything can be resolved by punching your way out of things. In your case, I’m pretty sure you would be annoyed and want it to stop. On Ren-san’s case, he tried to reason with you, but you didn’t listen.” He said seriously, still trying to reason with them. The three started to think. “Now, I can’t leave this situation as is. You three need to understand how to behave properly in these situations. So, as of today onward, I’ll have you stay until 6:30 P.M. to attend the Drama Club.”

“What!?” One of them exclaimed loudly. “But that’s so stupid! Theater is so boring!”

“Firstly, theater can be quite useful in learning how to talk to people and learn different situations. Secondly, you three don’t truly have an option. You made something wrong, you must try and make it right. That’s how it works here from now on. Besides, something like this is a cowardly act, so I’d normally expel you, but I want to give you a second chance.” He said seriously, which made everyone in the class look at him with either fear or respect. “Now, I also don’t need to remind you that any act of violence will result in a suspension relative to how severe the aggression is, or expulsion. You’re free to return to your classes.” He finished, looking over all the students, who nodded (or didn’t) and left. Before Ren, Makoto, Ann and Haru could leave, however, he spoke up. “Ann-san, Haru-san, could you two do me a favor?” He asked gently.

“Of course. What is it?” Ann asked curiously.

“Could you two get Ren-san and Makoto-san’s school supplies and bring them here?” He asked to the confusion of the three teens.

“Sure, no problem… but why?” Ann asked.

“I think these two need some compensation for what they’ve done and what they’ve been through.” He said as he looked at the council president and at the transfer student, both of which seemed confused. The two other girls looked confused, but smiled and nodded, leaving the room hastily. The three inside the office heard Ryuji ask Ann what was going on before their conversation became too distant to be heard.

“Uh… is there something you want us to do, Principal?” The grey-eyed boy asked curiously.

“No, no, there’s nothing I need from you two. In fact, I’m letting you two go today!” He said happily as he grabbed a pen and paper, starting to write something down as both teenagers looked at each other confused. When a realization came to the nuclear user, her eyes widened.

“Sir, when you say that you will let us go…” The red-eyed girl implied confused.

“Yup, you two are free from school today!” He said as he kept writing on the paper, then ripping it in two parts. That’s when both teen’s eyes became as large as the moon. “Here you go!” He said as he handed each of them a piece of paper. Both looked at it and saw written in it:

_I, Akira Obayashi, principal of Shujin Academy, declare to the proper ends that the students Ren Amamiya and Makoto Niijima have my permission to not frequent classes today._   
_Tokyo, 2016/10/7, Thursday_   
_Akira Obayashi_

The teens didn’t know how to react. Both looked at the papers and didn’t believe this was happening.

 _‘He’s really letting us go? For what reason?’_ Makoto thought, confused.

 _‘We have a full free day… I can’t even believe it…! But… why?’_ Ren thought, also confused.

They both heard the principal chuckle, so they looked at him. “I bet you weren’t expecting that today, were you?” He asked, amused as he got up. “Well, it’s true! You two now have nine and a half hours to do whatever you want!” He said as he put his hands on their shoulders, a big smile on his face. Both teens didn’t sense any bad intent from him or that smile. It felt genuine. Which confused the two even more.

“This is… really… I don’t even know what to say…” The Fool said, still processing everything, his friend nodding. “Why are you doing this?” He asked as he looked into the man’s eyes, wanting to see if he would lie to them or tell them the truth.

The tall man’s expression became more serious. “Honestly? I think you two deserve it. Makoto-san has been the best student council president I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been working on any school.” He looked at said girl. “You’ve had your share of problems and places you could improve in, but your caring and passion is something I have never seen before. You’re someone that needs a break from time to time.” He told her as she looked at him, not knowing how to react. He turned to the boy. “I have been paying attention to this school for quite a while. Sometimes, I would ask students what they thought of you, since you were and still are, to some degree, the talk of the school, and see how you were treated. I’ve always thought you deserved better than what you got, especially considering your improving grades and general calmness in school. I always suspected the rumors bothered you, but when I heard from my daughter that you broke down 4 days ago and Makoto-san came the next day and confirmed what happened, I knew it was time to step up. Seems I still took too long to do it, but what’s done is done and I will definitely not let things keep going this way. Something special will be held Monday, so be calm, okay?” He said as the confused boy nodded. “You two are very dedicated and honest people. You don’t know me for long, neither do I know you two very well, but know you can count on me.” He finished as he let the two go. Both teens didn’t know what to say. The headband girl looked to the frizzy-haired boy, her look posing him a question. _Is he lying?_ He could read in her eyes. He shook his head as a “no”. Both stored the letters away in their pockets, sat down and started to think about the man in front of them. A few seconds later, Ann, Haru and Ryuji (for some reason) arrived with their school supplies, the three teens smiling. They handed them to their leader and vice-leader and wished them a good day before quickly leaving and returning to their classes. Ren put his bag, which didn’t have Morgana, in his shoulder as Makoto did the same. Both looked at Principal Akira.

“Thank you so much, Akira-san.” Makoto said. “I don’t know how to properly thank you…”

“There’s no need! Go on, go live the day!” He said as he pushed them out of the office. “Make sure you two have fun, okay?” He said with a thumbs up as both teens nodded. He nodded and gently closed the door, leaving the two in an empty hallway. Both decided to leave before saying anything.

On their way to the door, they found their friends waiting for them. Before the two could even say anything, their friends rushed towards them. “Oh my gosh, you two are so lucky!” Ann commented happily while hugging both of them. “An entire day for yourselves! There’s so much you’ll be able to do now!” She exclaimed happily as she let them go.

“I gotta say… I’m a little jealous!” Ryuji said with a smile as he gave a small punch to Ren’s shoulder. “You two deserve it, though. Go on and make some great memories!”

“I sincerely hope you two have a fantastic day!” Haru said with her hands clasped together as she smiled.

“Leader and Vice-leader, make sure to rest royally! And make sure to have fun!” Morgana said, popping up from Ann’s bag.

The two teens, while extremely happy, were still confused, so both responded by hugging their friends and wishing them good luck in school. They said their goodbyes and the two headed off into the unknown day.

* * *

 

**On the way to the train station**

**8:56 A.M.**

Both were still walking together beneath the cloudy morning, but neither had commented anything for the last 10 minutes. They were really close to the station when Ren stopped. Makoto, noticing this, stopped and looked back at the boy. She saw he was looking down. She stepped closer and saw he had his right hand on his eyes. Was he… crying? “Ren-kun…?”

“I… I still can’t believe it…” He said, his voice shaky. “We… we have a full day for ourselves. A full day where we can do whatever we can!” He said looking at her, tears in his eyes, but a full smile. “It’s… so crazy… nine and--well, seven and a half hours to add to our day… It’s… so much time. Hell, I don’t even know what to with all this time!” He continued happily, honestly and with some doubt. She smiled at him as she brought her hand closer to wipe away his happy tears, only to stop midway. Was it right to do this now…? She decided to risk it, putting her hand in his cheek, raising his face up and wiping his happy tears away. He smiled at her, as did she.

 _‘He looks so happy… how long was he yearning for something like this? The fact that a free day gives him this much happiness… You really needed this, huh Ren-kun?’_ “I feel the same way!” She replied delightedly. “We spend so much time in school… I didn’t even notice we spend nine and a half hours there… nonetheless, let’s make sure to use this time wisely!” She continued, her tone almost one of a child on Christmas morning. “How about this: let’s each go home and change. I’ll meet you back at Leblanc and we’ll decide what to do from there. How about it?” She proposed. He nodded, his face still being held by her hand. She let him go. “Then let’s go to the station. I think the train is arriving now.”

They entered the station and, after showing the guard the note from the principal as to avoid any misunderstandings, boarded the platform. Both waited quietly and the train arrived in two minutes. They spent most of the trip quiet, yet with no awkwardness. Instead, it was replaced by a healthy anticipation. As they got out of the train at Shibuya, they had to part ways for the moment.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you soon, Makoto! If you want, I can make us some hot coffee before we go. We’ll probably need some energy for the day, after all!” The trickster offered excitedly. The girl nodded contently.

“I would love that. Well… see you later then!” She said, not sure how to say goodbye as she turned to the platform. She felt something was missing from that goodbye…

“Uhm… Makoto!” The glassed boy suddenly said, making the girl stop. “I… is it okay if we… say our goodbyes with a kiss on the cheek…?” He asked nervously, his cheeks red. Her own cheeks rivaled his in color after the suggestion as she looked down. “It’s just… it’s something people in Latin America and Russia do to say goodbye to someone close to them. Though, we don’t have to do it if you don’t want to!” He explained and excused quickly and nervously, looking away in embarrassment.

The girl’s face rivaled her eyes’ red as she pondered his offer. After a while, she replied: “I… I don’t see much of a problem, actually…” She explained as she got closer to him. “It’s just that your suggestion was sudden. But… I don’t see a problem in that.” She admitted in a tone he never heard before. She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, him doing the same to her. Both blushed hard but had goofy smiles on their faces. “W-well… see you in a few, Ren-kun!” She said as she nearly sprinted towards her platform. The boy stood there, watching her go away safely, then going to his platform. He _finally_ managed to do something he’d been wanting to do for over 4 months! His mind had one word in it. Rather, an image:

* * *

 

**Leblanc**

**9:15 A.M.**

He was cleaning the dishes, waiting for movement on the café. The usual old couple was there watching TV, but they were there every day. They were more of a constant. The gruff man was looking for something different, new customers. Ren had been a good help in that aspect, with some pretty famous people coming to his café, including that Akechi and the daughter of Okumura, Haru. While that was a good thing, he needed these people to constantly come here, not once or twice every two weeks. He sighed. At that moment, he heard the bell ring. Good, another customer. He stopped washing the dishes and turned around to greet the customer when he saw someone he never imagined at this time of the day: the boy who’d been living with him these past 8 months, Ren Amamiya, school bag and all. “Hey there, Sojiro. Sorry for busting in like this…” He said apologetically as he rubbed his neck. The old couple turned around and gave him a hello, to which he replied warmly, while the café owner was astonished. Why was he out of school?! As he opened his mouth to speak, the frizzy-haired boy said: “Before you say anything, I didn’t run away. The principal let me go today. Here’s his letter to prove it.” He said calmly as he gently handed the old man the letter in his pocket, which he quickly read and got more confused. “I’ll tell you everything, but before that, I’ll change clothes and be back to help you a bit, okay? Gotta look presentable today!” He asked happily without waiting for an answer before going up the stairs. The Hierophant just looked at the stairs, still in shock, before sitting down on the chair behind the counter. He heard the old couple chuckle.

“Kids these days are quite energetic and unpredictable, huh?” The old man commented with amusement toward his wife and Sojiro. The woman smiled, but it had a tint of worry.

“I wonder what made him come back so early in the morning…” She asked rhetorically.

“Nothing bad, I hope.” Sojiro commented. The conversation ended there as the three waited for the boy to come down the stairs. After two or three minutes, he was back with his unbuttoned black blazer, black-trimmed cream sweater, blue jeans and brown shoes. The same clothing he always wore during winter. Did he have multiple of those? It was then that the three noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Boss stood up from this chair, worry in his expression. “Okay, what the hell is going on? What happened in school today?” He asked irritated. The boy was a bit taken aback at the man’s small outburst, but went to his side.

“Well, let’s start at the beginning. Did the fixed curry satisfy our customers?” He asked smiling as he gestured toward the old couple, who were eating curry.

“That has nothing to do with-!“

“Oh, this curry has a bit of your hand?” The old man asked. “Well, it does certainly taste different, but it’s also tasty and spicy. Not too spicy and tasty enough!” He said as he clapped, his wife doing the same. Ren bowed to the two as Sojiro’s patience was being tested.

“Well, I made sure it wasn’t too spicy, since this curry has Ogon pepper in it. Boss put a little too much in it earlier today, so I helped him make more so it wouldn’t burn anyone or turn them into dragons. No offense, Boss.” He continued smoothly.

“None taken. Now tell us what happened.” The man replied seriously. The boy sighed.

“It started when I got to school…”

* * *

 

**9:27 A.M.**

“Hold on a second.” The Hierophant said. “So not only are you not going to school today, but your friend is also going to skip classes with you?”

“No, we’re not skipping classes. If he gave us the okay, we’re free from attending classes. We’re not skipping them.” The Fool replied calmly. “The way everything happened, it’s almost like the principal pushed us out and said for us to enjoy our day… he seems like a nice guy.” He commented aloud.

“Still, have you considered the effect this could have on your probation? If any police officer shows up-“ The man said, before being interrupted by the boy.

“I’ll just show them this paper and they can’t do anything. Don’t worry, Sojiro, I have thought about this.” The boy replied gently. “Besides, if anything comes up in the future about this, I’ll have the paper and Makoto to back me up. Nothing bad is going to happen. Literally, the opposite of bad is happening today!” He said as he prepared a cup of coffee while looking at the clock.

The bearded man took of his glasses, putting his hands over his eyes. As he thought of the situation, however, the bell rung. He opened his eyes and put his glasses to greet the customer when he noticed it was Makoto. She was wearing a lack turtleneck shirt under a blue coat, tight black pants and brown-ish knee-high boots and brought along with her a bag. The man looked to his side and saw the boy trying to hide the fact he was staring at her. He chuckled lowly, making sure she couldn’t hear it.

“Please excuse me. Hello Boss, Ren-kun!” She said happily, but then noticed the old couple. “Oh, I didn’t realize you had customers. I’m sorry for intruding…” She said apologetically. They both raised their hands, saying it was no problem.

“Welcome, Makoto!” Ren said warmly. “Please, have a seat. Your special coffee is almost ready!” He said as he got up and pulled a chair back for her. She smiled and sat down, him pushing the chair to its proper position in front of the counter as he went behind it, finishing up the girl’s coffee. She smiled at his gentleman manners, put the bag on the chair beside her and watched him prepare the coffee, almost as if she was analyzing how he did it. Sojiro and the old couple smiled. It was pretty obvious what was going on between the two.

Sojiro especially felt a form of happiness he never felt before. While he didn’t admit it, he was liking the boy that came so suddenly into his life. Seeing him go from a scared boy that didn’t stand up to himself to the man he was starting to become felt important to him. He could be too nice for his own good, but he always managed to help others no matter how daunting the task. Seeing him finally achieve something for his efforts made him feel… proud. And not just for him, but for the girl, too. He noticed that she is quite similar to him in a lot of ways. Both were extremely nice people with a good sense of justice and determination. The difference was that he joked more while she was more serious. In a way, each complemented the other nicely. He’d have to give his blessing to the boy before he left.

Said boy was putting the coffee on his favorite cup (unbeknownst to the girl) and putting a bit of sugar before gently handing it to her. The man was sure he made the coffee with all his love. “I hope you enjoy it!”

“Knowing you, I probably will.” She said confidently with a smile. She took a sip and gave a sound of approval. She then closed her eyes and took another sip. “…is this…” She pondered as she took another sip, her eyes still closed. “…Brazilian Bourbon?” She asked as she opened her eyes. He nodded.

“Yup! You’re getting good at this! We’re gonna have another coffee expert in town in no time!” He said proudly. The old couple smiled as they started watching TV again and the café owner smirked. This boy was trying to impress the girl with coffee. He had good taste. “Let me just take this apron off and fix my hair and we’ll be off, okay?” She nodded. “Be right back!” He said as he did what he said and went up the stairs. The bearded man turned to the young woman in front of him.

“Hey, is everything okay at school?” He asked simply and worriedly. She looked at him with a painful expression.

“I wish it was. Did he tell you what happened?” He nodded. “Then you know it isn’t. I keep wondering why people act the way they do, but I always reach a blank… Why can’t I find an answer?” She asked, annoyed and frustrated.

“Well, my guess would be because you’re not like them and never will be.” He responded calmly. “Don’t get too worked up over this. People are the way they are and it’s not our business to try and change them.”

She looked at him questioningly. “…yet Ren manages to do that every day. He’s changed so many people’s lives and the people themselves for the better. We all have an impact on somebody’s life, Sojiro-san.” She said seriously. “If it wasn’t for you, Futaba would still be with her uncle. Like it or not, you changed her simply because you love her and took action.” The man made a sound of annoyance, but didn’t retort. “I wish I could see it as simply as you do, but everything has layers to me. I want to understand them and adapt to them.”

“Fine. Let’s say you do manage to find out why the kids at your school act they way they do. What would you do with that knowledge?” He asked, putting his hands on the counter and looking her in the eye.

“I would try to help them. Try to show them why their ways are, objectively speaking, wrong and how to better themselves.”

“For what reason? What do _you_ gain from it?” He asked challengingly.

“Me? I would gain some peace of mind knowing I made the world a better place, even if just a little. If I don’t even try, how can I expect things to change?” She asked seriously. He sighed.

“Fine. I won’t push this anymore.” He ended simply, looking at the TV, though she noticed some annoyance in his voice. She felt challenged.

“Don’t you want the world to be better, Sojiro-san?” She asked genuinely curious. He looked back at her.

“Of course I do. I just don’t trust people.” He replied honestly.

“What about me, Ren-kun, our friends, Futaba?”

“Of course I trust you. I also admire how hopeful you all are. But I’m not the same as you. I don’t trust anyone easily.” He said before leaning in closer to her. “Word of advice: don’t expect too much from anyone. They will always stab you in the back when you’re not useful anymore.”

She didn’t show it, but she was shocked at his worldview. She knew he was a bit of a pessimist, but she never expected it to reach this level. _‘His faith in humanity is practically zero… He’s only hopeful in his business, Futaba and maybe Ren… it makes me want to cry!’_ She thought sadly, but nodded to his advice as to not make him frustrated if she refused it. She looked at the TV to make sure he couldn’t properly read her expression. She then remembered she hadn’t finished her coffee, so she took another sip. _‘Ren-kun is taking his time… is he okay?’_ She thought, storing the conversation with Sojiro in the back of her mind. She looked at her phone. _‘9:31… it felt like more time had passed.’_

At that moment, she heard steps from the stairs as Ren descended, his hair ‘jumping’ up and down as he descended excitedly back, like a child ready for their birthday. Only the child was actually the most attractive boy she met. And it wasn’t his birthday. _‘God, why do these thoughts come to my mind when he’s around?!’_

He went next to her, smiling all the way. “Shall we go? I wanna enjoy today!” He said to her.

“Of course. Let me just-“ She said as she put her hand on her bag, only for him to grab it.

“No. Just stop it.”

“But-“

“No.”

She sighed. “Fine. You win. You have to let me help you someday, though.” She pouted as she got up.

“Maybe someday, but not today miss Niijima! Today, we go off into the world to have some fun!” He said excitedly as he took her hand and dragged her to the door, said girl quickly grabbing her bag and nearly failing due to his sudden action as she blushed. “See you later Sojiro, old couple I don’t know the name yet!” He said excitedly after he opened the door, giving them a wave. “We will be back later and tell our adventures until the sun sets or we have to leave!”

The girl looked back at the people inside the café and saw they were all smiling and waving back, Boss with a smirk instead. “S-see you all soon-!” She attempted to say, but felt a tug on her arm. “EEP!” She exclaimed as she was pulled out of the joint, hearing giggles and chuckles coming from it. She looked back to the frizzy-haired boy as he pulled her, turning right, running down the street, then turning right again as she couldn’t do anything but try and keep up. “Ren-kun, slow down! We don’t need to run to our destination!” She said desperately but with some joy.

He slowed down and stopped, letting her hand go as he turned around to face her. “Heh, sorry. I felt like we were gonna be in there for a while if we didn’t run.” He said as he put his hands in his pockets.

“Are you implying I would have tried to keep paying for the coffee?” She asked, her hands behind her back. He smirked.

“Maybe. Maybe you would have started to enjoy the coffee too much and we wouldn’t be able to leave.” The Fool said teasingly. The Priestess smirked.

“Touché. I would have loved a bit more of that Brazilian Bourbon, though.” She noticed he looked at her with a wide smile, which seemed infectious. “What?”

“You also use touché!” He said excitedly.

“I do. I like its sound.” She explained.

“Same! Well, anyway, how about we get going?” He asked to her.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea. But Ren-kun…” She said, looking around. “The train station is to the left of Leblanc. Why did we go right?”

“Because I want to introduce you to a very good boy before we go.” He said suddenly seriously.

“Oh… alright then. Where is this… good boy?” She asked.

“I’m glad you asked. Let me just check…” The frizzy-haired boy said as he turned the corner. He then came back. “Nope, they’re not here. Oh well, I’ll introduce you to them later.” He said shrugging. “Now, shall we?” He said, walking past her and stopping, looking back with a smile.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She said as she stood by his side. Both started walking toward the train station, ready to start their day.

* * *

 

**Operation: Dating Sim!**

**Ann:** Hey, I don’t think we’ll need to do much for the two to hook up

 **Futaba:** Why’s that?

 **Ryuji:** Principal Akira let the two go for today

 **Futaba:** What?!

 **Haru:** It’s as Ryuji says: Principal Akira has given them permission to not frequent classes today.

 **Futaba:** Huh! They’ll both experience a Futaba day!

 **Ann:** What’s a Futaba day?

 **Ann:** Wait… do you want to crash their day?!

 **Futaba:** “Futaba Day”: Spending a day not going to school and doing whatever you want.

 **Ann:** Oh.

 **Ryuji:** Wouldn’t that make every day Futaba Day, tho?

 **Futaba:** Shhhh

 **Ryuji:** All right then… Well, I gotta say, if they don’t at least share a kiss, I’m gonna go over there and force them to kiss

 **Ann:** Desperation much?

 **Ryuji:** Nah. Just want ‘em to be happy

 **Ann:** Well, I kinda see where you’re coming from. Yeah, let’s send them our love energy so they spend some romantic moments!

 **Futaba:** Thanks for the meme idea

 **Yusuke:** “Love energy”…

 **Yusuke:** Of course! The energy lovers spend when running after lobsters on the city! Too bad the lobsters are eaten, though…

 **Futaba:** I’m not even gonna ask where you got that one from

 **Yusuke:** Why, from my head, of course.

**Futaba:**

**Ann:** I just thought of something

 **Ann:** I bet if some guy went to try and flirt with Makoto, Ren would be like:

 **Ann:**   “Forget it! There’s no way you’re taking Makoto’s heart!”

 **Futaba:** I’m gonna delete this group

 **Ann:** Don’t! We still have much to discuss!

 **Futaba:** like what

 **Ann:** Why does Ven and Roxas look the same, but aren’t the same character, but Xehanort looks different every time but is the same character?

 **Futaba:** Now this I can get behind

 **Ann:** Oh, wait, I’m in class! Gotta go!

 **Ryuji:** Shit!

 **Futaba:** Alrighty! I’ll prepare the image board!

 **Yusuke:** Would you like some help in that regard?

 **Futaba:** Nah, no need. It’ll be a masterpiece without your help! Now go back to painting my boy

 **Yusuke:** I was, until you interrupted me.

 **Futaba:** See ya! Gotta download 5017 images and finish the three boards. One’s almost done!

 **Futaba:** Heh heh… Ryuji must’ve taken a chalk to the forehead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you may have noticed, I covered a relatively shorter period in this chapter (around 2 hours) and the story is nowhere near done.  
> Which means...  
> YUP!  
> This specific day (October 7th), needs more than one chapter! So, this is only part one!  
> I'm sorry if this disappoints anyone that expected a full chapter, but for this specific idea, I needed more time to flesh it out.  
> Next chapter, part 2 of this, will focus more on the actual day of these two. It will seem to be filler, but it'll add some important details to the story overall.  
> Depending on how creative I get with part 2, there may or may not be a part 3 that focuses solely on the Mementos mission. Writing this, I noticed that action scenes need MANY MORE WORDS than anything else if you want to make it clear to the reader what's happening, which is why I think a part 3 would be better for that.  
> I hope this doesn't make any of you upset...  
> Also, what did you think of the two bullies who had a change of heart and newspaper club president in the story?  
> Either way, images are also back in the story and here are the research links this time! Far fewer than the other ones...  
> https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese  
> https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQA1JwDGZxE  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMiHs2y9PFM  
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/comments/7xulg3/let_me_explain_sojiros_coffee_and_curry_trivia/  
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/comments/6kpaix/who_are_your_favorite_random_npcs/


	5. Let's enjoy our time for now. How does that sound?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are both free for the day! Finally, Ren and Makoto have some time for themselves; to let loose; to have fun!  
> Of course, that's what they'll do. With no distractions or problems behind their backs!  
> ...right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID IT  
> I FINISHED THIS CHAPTEEERRRR  
> So, the chapter that was supposed to come out in January came out in March... Y I K E S  
> Once again, I'm sorry, but I was going through some moving and getting readjusted to school (LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL F I N A L L Y).  
> As time kept passing, however, the concepts for this story started to get clearer and clearer in my head, so this might be the most thought-out chapter I have posted for this story!
> 
> For song recommendations to listen in this chapter, I recommend Roxas' theme from KH 2.5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5eFvBKvGE&list=PLhFrPub2aXHCk3Nlx1CS7wNJRknZ6wmFc&index=9) when you get to the line "The park had a small crowd walking in it(...)", then changing to The Other Promise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexYz6m1SDA&t=1s) when you get to the line "Awww, how cute!”. And going back to Roxas' theme on the line "Ren felt his(...)"  
> Anyway, hope you enjoy this (hopefully long-awaited) chapter!
> 
> EDIT 1 (Already?!): I screwed up in one point and wrote Hayato as Hanako. Oops. It's fixed now. Also, during his message to the PTs in the Phan-site, the last two lines weren't in italics, so now they are.  
> EDIT 2: Added some more lines to Ren. There's a new paragraph starting from "I CAN make her happy." and the ending of the chapter, that now has a few more sentences and thoughts.  
> EDIT 3: I was rewatching some scenes from P5 and in one of the dialogues, Makoto says that her and Sae lost their father three years ago. Three years before Persona 5 (2016) is 2013, in which Makoto would be 14, turning 15 (since she's 18 years old in P5, as she was born in 1998). I made an adjustment to her story about Buchi-kun in the paragraph "Fine. I was as stubborn as I am today-". Thanks for @22_Lealius on Twitter for specifying she is 18 in P5!

**9:51 A.M.**

**Shibuya Station**

“Why haven’t you told me where we’re going yet, Ren-kun?” Makoto asked suspiciously as both were boarding the train that was taking them towards Shibuya. Both managed to find seats, somehow.

“Do I really have to if we’re taking the train that says ‘SHIBUYA’ on it?” He asked with a smirk as she rolled her eyes.

“Fine. You win. I guess I’ll have to wait to find out.” She said as the train started stopping. Both got up and left it, setting foot in the crowded station. It never stopped, huh? They both walked until she noticed he had stayed behind. She walked back and looked where his gaze was and saw he was paying attention to an ad of an app. An app that had a chibi version of Hifumi as its mascot. _‘So that’s the shogi app she told me about. Why is Ren-kun fixed on it if he already knows about it?’_ “Do you want to download it?” She asked, which snapped the boy out of his head as he looked at her with a neutral expression before changing it to a smile.

“Nah, I’d rather play on an actual board than on the app. Ryuji did make me play it once, though. It’s an… eh app.” He explained smoothly. “I was actually going over some of the strategies she taught me as we played. Of course, none of them worked for me, since I lost every time.” He admitted as he scratched his neck, starting to walk toward the stairs that took to the street and signaling for the red-eyed girl to follow him. Said girl started walking side-by-side with him as she heard him say all this.

“I can relate. I’ve only played with Hifumi three times, but she beat me every time. The knowledge she has of the board is quite incredible.” She said as both were going up the steps that led outside. “I wish I could get that level of knowledge when it comes to Shadows.” The headband girl said with a tone of longing as the grey-eyed boy looked at her confused.

“You do know your level of Shadow knowledge exceeds anyone else that we know, right?” He said casually, ignoring the voice in the back of his head that told him to not speak about the Metaverse in public. No one would hear it, they’d probably never understand it and assume they were talking about a new indie game if they heard it. The council president nodded sadly. “Then why keep beating yourself up over it?” He asked sincerely as he guided her through the crowd, towards Central Street.

“Because a single mistake could be lethal, Ren-kun.” She said seriously. “You have all entrusted me with analyzing them and creating strategies. In a way, you have all trusted your lives to me.” She continued, not noticing they were nearing one of her favorite places in Central Street: the bookstore. He stopped and leaned against the wall by the store as he looked at his friend. “I am honored that you all trust me so much, but I must acknowledge the responsibility I took upon myself. As I said, a single mistake could cost one of our lives…”

He looked at her worried. Almost 10 A.M. and she was sulking already…? Why? He just wanted to see her smile. He never saw it much. “Boop!” He said as he booped her nose, making her jump.

“Wha-?” She asked incredulously.

“I know the responsibility’s big and I want to help you, I really do.” He said seriously, and then smirked. “I could give you however many pep talks you’d like. While I do think you could use some of them, we’re here to have fun aren’t we?” The gray-eyed boy said, leaning closer to her, akin to a child.

“Yes, we are… but…” She said before an index finger gently blocked her lips, with a ‘shhh’ accompanying it. She felt her cheeks go red.

“I know we have a lot of troubles and responsibilities to take care of. In fact, if I were alone, I’d be doing a lot of talking around, looking for trouble and buying things.” He admitted, removing his finger from her lips (an action he never thought he’d take with her). “But since we’re together and we got the opportunity, let’s enjoy our moments together! Let’s treat ourselves! Let’s unwind and have fun so that, when we do have to deal with the responsibilities, we can deal with them more calmly.” He continued, hands in pockets before he offered his right hand to her as he turned to the bookstore with a smile. “Does that sound good?”

The vice-leader of the Phantom Thieves looked at the boy in front of her: his extended right hand, his messy hair flowing with the wind, his gentle smile, his deep gray eyes… and his proposal. Almost a full day without responsibilities… a day to have fun. Principal Akira had suggested that to them, and while she liked the idea, she wasn’t accustomed to let loose. She did have fun with her friends, but she never let her duties go, even in the moments she was just hanging out with them. She had learned how to be responsible, but it came at the cost of losing her carefree side. As that thought crossed her mind, she put her hand on the boy’s hand.

“It sounds like something I need desperately.” She said with an almost seductive smile that nearly made the boy melt. She giggled at his red cheeks, hers matching his, and pulled him along inside the bookstore as their day truly started. With some good detective novels and manga bought.

* * *

 

**10:03 A.M.**

**Principal’s office**

“Alright, Kawakami-sensei, we’ll keep an eye out for them and keep you posted!” Daisuke said as he and Yoshimori bowed and left the office. Said teacher and the principal had seriousness written all over their faces at the news they received from the two boys.

“I really hope this is just a rumor and not actually something she did…” The teacher said worriedly, turning to the principal. He nodded.

“I hope so, too…” He said, his chin resting on his hands. “Even though I trust these two and their operation, I certainly would like to know more about this and the three boys that attacked Ren-san…” He continued, sitting back at the chair and looking to the ceiling before looking at the young teacher next to him. “Say, Kawakami-san, would a third-year be able to help us in Ren-san’s case?” He asked sincerely, to which she stopped to think.

“Well…” She said after a few seconds pondering. “Since you said that Makoto-san’s gonna be busy, I think there’s one student we can place our trust on.” She offered.

“Perfect! So, who is it?” The middle-aged man asked.

* * *

 

**10:32 A.M.**

**Karaoke in Central Street**

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Ren insisted to Makoto as both entered the karaoke. She looked uncomfortable.

“Ren-kun, I’m not sure if you know this, but I can’t sing.” She explained worriedly. After hearing the person on-stage, she added: “Apparently, I’m not the only one…”

“You don’t come here to make a show, Makoto.” The gray-eyed boy said as he picked one of the tables, gesturing the girl to sit down too. “You can clearly see that the people here don’t have the most angelic voices in the world.” He whispered. “People come here to have fun and let go. Didn’t we say that we were gonna have fun?” He continued with a sympathetic smile. The nuclear user did sit down, but her hands were near her lap, not _on_ her lap, and her head was slightly angled down, a pose she did when she was shy, uncomfortable or overwhelmed.

“I-I don’t know, Ren-kun… I am used to talking and doing presentations to people, but… I never had to sing to anyone…” She explained, still uncomfortable as the waiter arrived, serving them their drinks. He wanted to insist, but he was also worried about her. The moment he opened his mouth to offer her the option of simply leaving, however, she took a deep breath and continued. “But… I won’t be able to grow as a person without these experiences. You did promise me back then that you’d take me to places to broaden my horizons. You’re fulfilling your part, as must I fulfill mine.” She said in a business tone.

“You don’t need to go full formal mode to convince yourself to sing, Makoto.” He replied with an amused smile, elbows on the table. She squirmed.

“Yes I do.” She replied now calmly. “Could you… come up on stage with me? I don’t want to go alone…”

“Thought you’d never ask!” He responded as both waited for their turn, watching the people try their best at singing and failing. Okay, some had mediocre voices, but nobody was really good. After three songs, their turn arrived. The crowd looked at them with some suspicion, since both seemed young and should be at school, but since they weren’t wearing uniforms, nobody said anything. Both teens approached the tablet and shared a look. She nodded at him, so he changed the mode to English songs and scrolled through the years and picked the song. As an electrical “dum-dum-dum-dum dum-dum-dum-dum” began, both teens began to prepare themselves as the lyrics appeared on-screen. Ren looked to Makoto’s side to see how she felt. She looked a bit on edge, but her eyes showed determination. Smiling to himself, he looked back as the lyrics began.

 _“[Still and silent_  
_Calm before the storm_  
_Gold and diamond_  
_Jewels behind the throne_  
_Into the night_  
_Out of the dark_  
_Take to the sky_  
_Chasing the stars_  
_All that we said_  
_All that we are_  
_Waiting to fly_  
_This is the start_  
_Hide and Seek_  
_Reason and rhyme_  
_Grand and glorious_  
_Living the dream_  
_Yours and mine_  
_Euphoria]”_

All the worry the boy could have for the girl disappeared the moment they got to the “ _Into the night”_ verse. She picked the rhythm up quickly and sang along to the song perfectly. Her tone was a bit lower than Laura Brehm’s, though that was due to her not knowing which tone to use. He already loved the song, but seeing his crush accept to sing it with him was quite… magical. _‘#Cheese, anyone?’_ This only motivated him further as both did their best to keep up with the song and entertain the crowd during the instrumental break, him doing some small dancing moves and her tapping her foot to the beat. When the song ended, everyone clapped at them, as both bowed to take their leave. Before they could, however, the public started chanting “once more”. When the boy was about to step back up to the stage, only to be held by the arm by two smaller arms of his advisor. He looked back at her; her head was down, but he felt an intense aura from her. The brunette finally looked at him and her (-beautiful-) red eyes showed determination as she declared: “Let me.”

Internally, he wanted to jump with joy, but since that would probably give them a few weird stares, he just smiled and chuckled a bit. “You sure?”

“…absolutely!” She said letting go of his arms and doing a determined fist pump. He nodded and let her up, going to their table. Now that he was down here… he had a good look of the stage and the beautiful girl on it, who was currently struggling with what song to pick. He also had a great view of the whole establishment, which was quite organized, considering it had few employees and was probably privately owned. The people here seemed pretty normal, though he did notice some of them seemed to be his age… maybe they were students? It did pique his interest, but what caught his attention was that the Phantom Thieves’ vice-leader picked a song. He recognized the begging and started laughing to himself, making sure she wouldn’t hear him, and picked up his phone to record her singing.

In the beginning, she didn’t know how to perform correctly. She tried singing along, but her stage presence was close to zero. At one point, she looked at him with desperation on her eyes. He mouthed to her _“Go with the flow! Let go, Queen!”_ She nodded, stopped singing and closed her eyes. This caught the crowd’s attention. When the chorus came along, she opened her eyes and started singing with no fear. She also started doing some of the dance moves he did when he performed. The Wild Card noticed she started using the fierceness of Queen in an upbeat manner, which was something he was not ready for. He nearly dropped the phone as she clapped, jumped around, danced, gave smirks and did hand moves and signs as she sang, finally being in-synch with the song both lyrically and in presence. He and the entire crowd agreed her performance was amazing as everyone started cheering and clapping along with the rhythm. It all culminated in a final pose that reminded the gray-eyed boy of, ironically enough, Ryuji’s pose when they performed a successful all-out-attack. He stopped the recording, put the phone on the table, got up and clapped at her, most of the crowd following suit as she bowed with a giggle. She gave everyone a small content smile and came down to let another person take the stage. The red-eyed girl smiled sheepishly at her companion, messing with a strand of her hair. “How did I do?” She asked contently.

“How did you do? Girl, you set the stage on fire! YOU were on fire! It was hotter than any of Ann’s fire spells!” He gushed quickly and excitedly with a smile before realizing he inadvertently called her “hot”. Then the red filter appeared on his face, as it did on hers. She seemed to take it well, however, because she giggled at him.

“Thank you! I’m glad to see I can turn up the heat!” She joked happily and with some embarrassment. The frizzy-haired boy nearly swooned at her making a joke, even if it was quite the lame one-liner. He hid this reaction by smirking instead and sitting down.

“Indeed. We could say you stole the spotlight!” He continued, to which she rolled her eyes with a smile as she also sat down.

“It’s good you never change.” She declared before continuing. “I never expected to be able to perform for an audience this big, much less sing to them!”

“But you had fun, right?” The frizzy-haired boy asked contently.

“Yes, I did! I felt a thrill different from the one from when we fight Shadows. It doesn’t feel as drastic, but it’s just as exhilarating!” The vice-leader noticed with a hand on her chin. The leader took his phone out of his pocket and started tapping on its screen before flipping it sideways and showing the girl the video he recorded of her. “It feels so unreal seeing myself this loose…” The honor student commented with awe in her voice.

The gray-eyed boy kept looking at the girl instead of looking at the video. His smile mirrored hers. _‘I CAN make her happy.’_

A thought popped into his mind at that moment: he could make her happy, but should he? Or rather, did he want to make her happy? Was he willing to sacrifice some of his time to help out this girl that had her share of troubles?

He looked at her again. He saw her short, brunette hair; her round face; her beautiful lips that probably have an associated name that he didn't know; her smile at seeing herself this loose and her deep red eyes, sparkling with happiness. He also remembered many of their moments together: the first time they went to the arcade, the time they went to Chinatown to buy some gifts, the time they called Takemi to check on Futaba, even the time they went to the council room during vacation (in which she made an innuendo without even realizing it). Now that he recalled these moments, he felt... peaceful. He could be more serious, even normal when he was around her. He could be more like himself. Some of those moments weren't happy, per se, but he wouldn't trade them for anything. When they WERE happy, normally due to one of his jokes, and he saw her smile, he kept wanting to see it.

He was determined. It was worth it to try and make this girl happy.

“It’s good seeing you like this, Makoto.” He said honestly after the video ended.

The statement caught her off-guard. “Why is that, Ren-kun?”

“Well… you’re very moved by responsibility. That’s something I really admire and respect about you.” He started explaining as he put his phone away and looked at her. “But that, in turn, makes you forget to have fun sometimes.”

She looked thoughtful at first, but then a tad hurt by his explanation. “I know that. But… wouldn’t that make me irresponsible? Having too much fun, I mean.”

“No, no it wouldn’t. And I didn’t mean it like that." He said before thinking about what words to use. After about two or three seconds of recollection, he noticed something. “Wait, this is too much for fun you?” He asked worriedly as she nodded. He looked at her wide-eyed.

“Yes. I normally don’t have this much fun. Singing to a crowd and not doing badly at it is like making a dream come true; a dream I never knew I had, but a dream nonetheless.” She explained to the perplexed boy. “In fact… all of our escapades to the Arcade, here and even the red-light district are fun. I’ve never felt much of this… freedom that you show to me. So… thank you.” She continued with a happy smile back on her face.

The frizzy-haired boy, as shocked as he was due to her revelation, felt a surge of happiness through his body. He felt special, in a way. But he didn’t let it go to his head. In fact, this revelation of hers only made him feel even more determined to make her have fun. “Heh… no problem, Makoto. BUT!” He said normally then loudly which startled the third-year. “This is only the tip of the iceberg of fun! We’re gonna do so many things today that your worldview is gonna do a 180 regarding pleasurable experiences!” He declared while putting his right hand near his left pulse, trying to fix his not-there shirt cuff. She smirked at his action and tried to not laugh. He gave her a cheeky smile before realizing that the shirt he was wearing didn’t have a cuff. Both laughed and decided to continue their fun-driven day by continuing to sing, at least until their time expired. On the way out, Ren looked at the arcade for a couple of seconds. This caught the girl’s attention.

“Do you wanna go there?” Makoto asked, hands behind her back.

“Hm?” He said, not really there, before looking at her and at the arcade again. “Oh, maybe later. It’s just that I remembered a friend of mine that is very good at Gun About.” He said nonchalantly.

“Really? You might want to introduce him to me someday, then!” She replied happily.

“Yeah… one day I will.” The leader said. “Hey, how about we go to the movie theater? See what titles they have there?” He asked, curiosity in his voice.

“Let’s go!” She explained excitedly.

* * *

  
**11:20 A.M.**

**In front of the principal’s office**

Both women approached the room seriously. One of them had worry mixed with said seriousness while the other had curiosity in her eyes. The teacher knocked on the door and a low, but welcoming “come in!” was heard. Kawakami opened the door and gave a short bow.

“Akira-san, I brought Haru.” She declared, walking to his side as the fluffy-haired girl entered the room with awe. She had never been here before, so seeing how organized everything was made her happy. Said happiness vanished when she saw the trophies that the school won because of Kamoshida.

The principal saw her change in expression and followed her eyes, noticing the object that made her uncomfortable. He gave a small chuckle. “Yeah… I get you. If victory is obtained through the suffering of others, is it really a victory then?” He said philosophically, to which the third-year nodded strongly.

“I would say it wasn’t a true victory. They represent hidden corruption…” She said slowly and in a low tone.

“I have to agree.” The dark-haired man said seriously, putting his hands under his chin. “Speaking of… I called you here to give you some information.”

This surprised the rich girl. “What information, sir?”

“All of the teachers and I have been seeing who are those three boys that attacked Ren-san earlier this morning.” At the mention of the three, the Empress cringed. “I know, but after speaking with all the teachers, we thought it best if you knew about this, especially considering you’re friends with Ren-san and Makoto-san.” He said seriously, motioning her to sit in the chair in front of his desk, which she did. “Now, I don’t want to place this burden unto you without your consent. So, Haru Okumura-san, would you-“

“Yes.” She interrupted him. “I accept the burden. Now, please tell me what happened.”

He looked at her shocked. She didn’t even hesitate! He’d never met anyone like that, much less a teen. Knowing the value (or lack thereof) of the trophies and the responsibility she was taking now… “Well, to start with, I got most of this information from the police. I have a friend there that was willing to help and not tell his boss. The three boys that attacked Ren-san are Akio Himura, Daiki Mizushima and Hayato Maki.” He said while putting their photos on the table. Indeed, those were the three.

Akio looked like a generic rebellious Japanese punk. He had a cocky expression, golden earrings, a chain that connected to a piercing on his nose, short black hair and some black eye shadows. He also looked pretty thin. What caught her off guard was that he had a small Japanese police badge replica, with all details accounted for, on his chest above his heart. An Inspector police badge replica…

Daiki looked stronger than him but was similar. He had a more serious expression, also had earrings (his were silver), a mouth piercing, short brown hair and the same black eye shadows. He also had a replica police badge…

Hayato was the most different out of the three. He didn’t have any earrings, piercings or eye shadows, had short brown hair and his expression was much gentler than the other two’s. He had the police badge, but his seemed cheaper than the other two, almost as if it was hand-made while the other two were actual replicas.

After she was done inspecting the photos, she raised her head to look at the principal, who immediately started talking again. “You remember the two other boys here with us earlier today?” She nodded. “Daisuke-san and Yoshimori-san told me they’ve been searching for troublemakers for a while now. They were looking into these three and were about to warn Ren-san, but were too late. What they discovered is that the trio, during and after school, goes after ‘suspicious persons’ (he said making air quotes with his fingers) that could be criminals to 'teach them a lesson'.”

“Which is to attack them?” The teen guessed, to which the man nodded.

“Honestly, their idea of justice is completely warped.” Kawakami said. “They think that by beating these people up, they’re making sure they don’t do crimes. Which is completely irrational.” She continued with a sigh. “Maybe they think that fear is the answer?”

“I wish I knew.” The glassed man declared lowly. “Haru-san, I’d like for you to take a picture of them and send the details to your friends. We are trying to figure out where they are, but we are out of luck. Their parents don’t seem to know or care.” He informed her seriously.

A thought crossed her mind just then: why not call the police? They could find three teenagers who were supposed to be in school. But then she considered the situation from the Principal’s perspective. “I have a suspicion you will not call the police, correct Akira-san?” She asked, to which he regretfully nodded. “I am assuming it’s because of the recent scandal with Kobayakawa, correct?”

He nodded again. “I really wish I could do something about this, but the scandal is still fresh within the people’s minds. If I call the police, this _will_ leak somehow and distrust in our school will increase even more. My hands are tied.” He explained. “This is why I asked you if you would accept the burden, Haru-san. Are you still sure about this?”

“Akira-san, I believe in you. It must be difficult dealing with these problems when you yourself have only been here as principal for about a month. You also appear to be a nice person, one that truly cares for the students and the school you have power over.” The fluffy-haired girl said honestly. “This also involves my friends and their safety here. Not only theirs, but also of the teachers and you. I know it could be dangerous, but I will manage.” She continued before getting up and taking photos of the photos, making sure the photo quality was the best she could get. “Is this all, Akira-san, Kawakami-sensei?” She asked gracefully, to which both adults nodded. “Then I shall take my leave. Please excuse me.” She said with a bow, leaving shortly after.

The young teacher turned to the older man. “This is why I told you we could trust her. She has a similar drive to Ann and Makoto.” She explained with a hand on her hip.

“Yeah, I can see that now.” The seated man said with a hand on his chin, looking at the door. “She seems so calm at a distance, and she is, but that determination is strong. I like her.” He declared with a smile.

“Me too.” The teacher agreed. “Is there anything else we can do in the meantime?”

“Honestly, not much. We could make the teachers go back to the classrooms… actually!” He suddenly said while getting up. “Yes, let’s do exactly that! Let’s return the school to normal, after lunch of course. I have to speak to another group after lunch.”

This piqued Kawakami’s attention. “Student group? Do you mean the council?”

“Oh yeah.” He commented with stride, heading out his office and into the third floor.

* * *

  
Meanwhile, Haru was on her way to her classroom when her phone vibrated. She stopped near a wall and opened the text messages, which there were quite a lot of. She started scrolling from the beginning.

* * *

 

 **Ren:** Hey, just so ya’ll know, here’s Makoto singing Bang Bang Bang

 **Ren:** *video file*

 **Futaba:** WWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ⊙０⊙ (゜ロ゜) z0o0z

 **Yusuke:** This…! This is perfect stimulation! Give me more!

 **Ann:**  Ren, why do you send this when I don’t have headphones?! I wanna see it!!!

 **Ryuji:** Holy shit…! Me too!

 **Ren:** Here you go, Yusuke. Now we have Makoto singing Senbonzakura

 **Ren:** *video file*

 **Yusuke:** Yes… YES! This is exactly what I needed!!!

 **Yusuke:** I sincerely thank you for the inspiration Ren, Makoto!

 **Futaba:** HUDETYOIFETYROUQGRUOQHOIQ7R8QOGBRIOQ7WRYQJWRBHLQYRIOQHRWQRIQPROQNRH HOW DIDYOU GET HER T O SING ??

 **Ren:** Simple. I sang first and then she went along and started singing by herself.

 **Makoto:** It was quite fun! But I wasn’t the only one that sang!

 **Makoto:** Here’s Ren singing Gangnam Style:

 **Makoto:** *video file*

 **Futaba:** Boring! Everyone sang that song!

 **Yusuke:** But look at his moves! He dances in such a horrendous and clunky way that it is nearly artistic! Makoto, are there any more of these stimulating videos?

 **Ren:** Hey! That was graceful!

 **Ann:** Mona says he’ll be the judge of that later.

 **Makoto:** I wouldn’t call them _that_ but… I have two more.

 **Makoto:** This is Ren singing YMCA and Macarena

 **Makoto:** *video files*

 **Futaba:** This would be perfect blackmail material if you weren’t sending it… dangit

 **Yusuke:** I am so close to perfection! Could you send me one more?!

 **Ren:** One more? Uhm…

 **Makoto:** Well…

 **Yusuke:** Were there any songs you sang together? Perhaps something so intensely rich and wondrous? Perhaps something horrendous that yet inspires?

 **Futaba:** Like my plays in For Glory?

 **Yusuke:** Leader? Vice-leader?

 **Futaba:** DON’T YOU DARE IGNORE ME INARI

 **Futaba:** IF YOU DO I’M GONNA DOXX YOU SO HARD ლಠ益ಠ)ლ

 **Ren:** After a bit of discussing, we have two songs we can share:

 **Futaba:** Fine… I didn’t want your friendship anyway, Inari…

 **Yusuke:** I’m sorry, what is “doxxing”?

 **Ren:** *video files*

 **Futaba:** I give up.

 **Futaba:** AHFOUAGWOFUAEBJRLWQYORUFGWUOQYREIQWR1UGRUBJFASBJKFASGJFASHFFAFHAIFHIA OLOOLOLLLLLLLLLLLLL TAHST AWESOIMENR

 **Yusuke:** I am feeling inspiration! IT IS COMING TO ME!

**Futaba: HOO BOY**

**Ryuji:** Oh, what the hell is it now?!

 **Ann:** Tell us!

 **Futaba:** ITS FREAKNIGH A WHOJELR NEW WOIUDRL ADN  HIPS DOENT LIUET BUT THEYER SO AWKEARDDDDDDDDDD

 **Ann:** OH MY GOD

 **Ryuji:** FO REAL THO?!

 **Haru:** My! Such boldness!

 **Yusuke:** YES! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! THE WORLD WILL VIEW THIS AS A MASTERPIECE, A PAINTING THAT TRANCENDS ITS STATUS TO BECOME REAL!

 **Futaba:** WHHHEEEEEEZZZEEEEE

 **Ren:** Enough already…

 **Makoto:** …

 **Futaba:** ON A SCALE FROM 1-10 HOW RED IN THE FACE ARE YOU RN

 **Futaba:** ANSWER YOU COWARDS

 **Ryuji:** They ain’t gonna answer because they’re suuuuppeerrr red rn!

 **Ren:** …10

 **Makoto:** …10

 **Ryuji:** F

 **Futaba:** IT WORKED

**Ann:**

****

**Ren:** Those songs don’t count! They were chosen by the crowd!

**Ren:**

****

**Futaba:** YOU WENT ALONG WITH IT, YOU PAY THE PRICE, YOU THIEF

 **Makoto:** As much as this is embarrassing… I have to admit.

 **Makoto:** It was quite fun!

 **Ren:** Yeah! The day’s going well so far. Wish you guys were here.

 **Futaba:** We already have tons of fun. Now it’s your turn!

 **Yusuke:** By “us” you mean “you”

 **Futaba:** shut it inari

 **Yusuke:** Once again, my hunch was correct.

 **Yusuke:** Although I do agree with Futaba. Make sure to make unforgettable memories of today. The fleeting moments have a special place in our hearts, after all.

 **Haru:** You two deserve to have fun! We definitely have to thank Principal Akira later!

 **Ryuji:** For real. He might not be a bad guy after all.

 **Ann:** Yeah! Let’s hope he’s not an evil mastermind or anything.

 **Ren:** I sure hope so!

 **Makoto:** We’ll keep you all posted on what we’re doing. Oh! We are interfering with your classes!

 **Ann:** Actually, you’re not. The teachers are still discussing and dealing with what happened today, so we’ve been told to review our study materials.

 **Ren:** Then why aren’t you and Ryuji watching the videos we sent?

 **Ann:** Already told you, no headphones and Ryuji doesn’t want to let me borrow his.

 **Ryuji:** I would let you borrow them if they didn’t break during the whole assault thing!

 **Makoto:** I’m sorry, Ryuji…

 **Ryuji:** ‘S okay. I needed to get new ones anyway.

 **Ryuji:** Oh, shit! Thass’ right! Sorry to bring the mood down, but this is important! Ren, Makoto, watch out. From what I heard, the three guys that attacked you disappeared. No one knows where they went.

 **Ren:** That’s troubling… is there anything anyone knows besides the fact that they are being bad students?

 **Ann:** Nope. Sorry.

 **Ryuji:** Nothin’ here too, man. I can talk to people if ya’d like.

 **Ren:** I would. Thanks, bro.

 **Futaba:** I can try and find out their social media and student information.

 **Ren:** Maybe… let’s keep that as a last resort.

 **Haru:** I was called to the principal’s office earlier today. They asked me to look into the situation and find more about the three boys.

 **Haru:** I have managed to discover their names: Akio Himura, Daiki Mizushima and Hayato Maki.

 **Haru:** I also have some pictures:

 **Haru:** *image files*

 **Haru:** The three have… a troubled viewpoint. They target people who are suspected of being criminals and chase them to “teach them a lesson”. They believe it’s justice, apparently.

 **Haru:** That’s all I know about them. This information was given to me by Principal Akira and Kawakami-sensei.

 **Ren:** …they really do care.

 **Makoto:** I… still don’t know how to feel.

 **Ann:** Yeah… it must be pretty crazy for you two.

 **Yusuke:** Could you tell us in detail what happened? I only know vaguely of what transpired.

 **Makoto:** I would, but…

 **Ren:** Ann, Ryuji, could we leave this to you? We need to think about some things…

 **Ryuji:** Don’t sweat it, bro. We got it!

 **Ann:** Go do what you have to. We’ll hold down the fort!

 **Ryuji:** There’s no fort to hold down, Ann

 **Ann:** Shut it

 **Haru:** Please don’t feel threated over this, leader, vice-leader. You are supposed to be taking time off…

 **Ren:** Yeah, we are, but apparently life has other plans

 **Makoto:** Well, we ARE going to a different restaurant for lunch now. That should be fun!

 **Futaba:** Ooh! What kind of food? Is it Japanese? Chinese? Are you gonna eat Chicken Feet?!

 **Ren:** Of course, we’re going to the restaurant “Yusuke’s fridge” and order “Where the hell do you get these ideas from?”. Very classy place

 **Futaba:** R00D

 **Makoto:** …it’s a Brazilian restaurant.

* * *

* * *

  
**11:30 A.M.**

**Line in front of Barbacoa**

“I don’t like that there’s a possibility that we’re being followed, Ren-kun.” Makoto said worriedly after putting away her phone. “I know this is selfish of me, but I was hoping we could have some time for ourselves…”

“I feel the same way.” Ren replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Although… maybe we could help them…”

“Could we?”

“If they have distorted desires, yes.”

“But… would we be selfish if we go after them? As in, would we be repeating the same mistake we did right before Morgana left us?”

The question lingered as both teenagers stood side by side in the big line leading to the restaurant both were going to attend. The pair just kept thinking about the implications of their three assaulters disappearing from school. After a few moments of silence, the Fool let out a low groan.

“You know what?” He asked with an annoyed expression. “Screw this. These guys may be trying to find us, but I’m NOT gonna let them screw up our day like this! They wanna make it start bad? Okay, I get it, ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᵗʰᵒᵘᵍʰ ᴵ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ, but if you want to screw up the rest of my day…” He said with a smirk. While it was a threat, the girl so felt pumped by his determination as she also had a smirk on her face.

“Yeah… I share the sentiment.” She agreed with her smirk growing wider.

Suddenly, a voice behind them said: “Hey, I know you two are being two happy psychopaths, but could you please move? You can kill someone later, just don’t make the line longer than it needs to be!” The man said to both teens, who both blushed from embarrassment. Some of the adults on the line gave them dirty looks or nodded to the man’s words.

“Sorry, man.” The Fool said to the man and walked the line, the Priestess following suit. He leaned closer to her. “I think we maaay have gone overboard there.”

“Just a bit.” She agreed with a nod.

* * *

 

**12:17 P.M.**

**Barbacoa in Shibuya**

“I never expected to be trying out this kind of food before… it almost feels alien trying it out now!” Makoto said happily as she ate the exotic Brazilian “Churrasco”. The place they were having lunch is was comfy. It was illuminated by yellow lights that mashed well with the brown bricks that served as the foundation of the place. It had fancy wooden tables, nicely decorated carpets, a stand to pick vegetables and food and the waiters walked around serving the customers the different meats. “This meat tastes different…”

“Well, it’s probably because Churrasco is something native to Brazil. I was surprised when I discovered this place! Didn’t think we’d have this type of restaurant here.” Ren replied excitedly, almost like a child on their favorite restaurant as he took a sip of Guaraná, a Brazilian beverage. This made his friend curious.

“I want to ask you something, Ren-kun.” She said putting her hands under her chin, leaning a tad closer to him.

“Sure. Shoot.” He said with a small wave to his hair, while also leaning a tad closer.

“I’ve heard you mention Brazilian food and customs a few times before. When did you learn of these and why do you like them so much?” The red-eyed girl asked honestly. He chuckled.

“Well, I’ve been to Brazil before. Only once, but it was a nice trip.” He said confidently before taking a bite out of the salad accompanying their meal. “I like it there. It has its problems, especially with politics and drama, but, honestly? Their food is top-notch! It’s kinda simple, but it’s the mix of all the simple things that make it good.” He explained honestly. The brunette looked at him with a questioning expression. “I know it seems crazy, but that’s the best way I can explain it. For example: one of their most traditional foods is beans and rice. Seems pretty boring, right?” He asked with a smirk, to which she nodded seriously. “Even the seasonings are simple: for the rice, we have salt and onions; for the beans, we have salt, onions, chopped garlic and some people put bay leaf. Even though that doesn’t seem like much, it ends up being quite unique. It’s a simple recipe with a simple taste, but it’s so different from things I have seen in other places that it's one of my favorites. Capiché?” He said, gesturing with his hands the whole time. The nuclear-user lowered her head and processed the information. It did make sense when he put it that way, though she never considered that angle. Simpler things… they had their value too. Maybe… if she took a simpler approach to certain things in her life, she could have some more peace of mind; have time to reflect on her choices. Wait… they were talking about food, not life. Though the concept could apply to life…

She suddenly felt a small vibration from her pocket. She picked up her phone and saw it was a text. She quickly opened it and saw it was from… Ren.

 **Ren:** I was only talking about beans and rice, Queen. No need to formulate a strategy over it! Unless you’re planning on topping the chefs here? ಠ‿↼

She looked unamused at the text (though she was trying to hide a smile), then at the boy sitting in front of her. “Really?”

“What? How do you expect me to focus on the food? I’m not gonna go over there and touch you. Reflexes can be lethal, ya know?” He said with a smirk. She gave a small pained smile.

“True. I almost punched Haru yesterday because of my reflexes…” She said looking down. The wildcard looked surprised at her.

“Well, judging by how she was today, you didn’t break any of her bones, then?” He asked nonchalantly as he took another piece of steak to eat. She looked a bit uncomfortable.

“Luckily, no… she managed to block it…” She said sadly. A weird thought suddenly crossed her mind: did Ren-kun not like this side of her? After all, most girls weren’t almost accidentally punching their friends. She heard her phone vibrate again, but didn’t check, as she just looked to the (handsome) teen in front of her. His eyes were sharp, focused, but gentle. His lips also curled into a smile.

“You need to stop doing that.” He said warmly.

“Doing what?”

“Thinking too hard about your actions.” He said as he put his elbows on the table, resting his chin on his hands. “It kills your self-esteem, you know?” She looked shocked at him. “Furrowed eyebrows, loose shoulders, distant look in your eyes. I notice those things, Makoto. I wouldn’t be the best leader if I didn’t connect with my teammates, right?” He continued in a tone that reminded her of Joker, only it was much more… gentle. “That being said, I can’t hear thoughts. If you could tell me what’s bothering you, I’ll do my best to help.” He offered along with a gentle smile as he rested his hands on his chin.

She stayed quiet for a few seconds. _‘Should I tell him?’_ The nuclear user thought, weighing her options: she could simply change the subject; It would spare her the moody atmosphere -- no. Her only option was to tell Ren-kun of a recurring self-doubt problem.

There was a problem with telling him this, though: she never sought help with any self-doubt issues. She always bottled up what she thought and eventually stored it in the back of her memory. Even when she tried to forget it, she never could. You could never truly forget anything. The best she could do was store those insecurities in the back of her mind. Yet… she now found herself in a situation she had never faced before: the way the conversation had gone, there was no way she could avoid the subject without making Ren-kun disappointed in her.

Option 2 was the only one she had at this point. Yet… as much as she trusted Ren-kun… as much as she did know she needed to sort this out…

She didn’t want to tell him about this. Not yet. She trusted him… but she wasn’t ready. She took a deep breath.

“…Ren-kun...” She started slow, which made the boy look worried. “…yes. There is something bothering me. It has been for quite some time now. But…” She trailed off.

“…you don’t want to tell me.” He finished for her, which made her feel guilty as she nodded. She hoped he wasn’t too hurt by this. “Is there any specific reason?” He asked in his normal tone of voice.

“No… I’m just not comfortable enough to talk about this now.” She said, to which he visibly flinched. The brunette got desperate. “Don’t get me wrong, I trust you, Ren-kun!” The red-eyed girl said as she looked into her friend’s eyes. “I trust you with my life. But this… it feels like something I need to think before I tell you. Do you understand…?” She asked honestly, looking at the gray-eyed boy’s eyes, trying to see if she hurt him. Said eyes looked… contemplative, before he gave her a sympathetic smile.

“I do.” He said honestly, which took a weight off her chest. “I can’t expect you to tell me everything, after all. I don’t tell much of myself to anyone, so I shouldn’t expect the inverse to happen all the time.” He concluded happily as she sweatdropped.

“That’s... not exactly what I meant, but I’m glad you understand.” The advisor said relieved. “I promise you I’ll tell you soon, but I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“No problemo! I’ve been, and still are, where you are.” He said as he took a bite of his salad before looking warmly into her eyes. “If you really wanna tell me, then do so when you feel comfortable, okay?”

She nearly turned into jelly at his warmth. She had heard of the so-called “nice guys” and even knew some personally. She knew that the term could be used both positively and negatively, though for all the times she met one of these, she could only associate the negative use to them. This was not the case with Ren. Unlike the other nice guys, that were like that so they could get rewards, Ren seemed to genuinely care about her problems and was offering genuine advice. It could also be his max charm that was playing with her mind, but the more she thought about it, the less her infatuation with him seemed purely sexual and seemed more and more about the small seed that could blossom into love.

She then noticed she had just thought “the small seed that could blossom into love” and blushed. Firstly, she was analytical and liked precise terms and words, but… a seed that blossoms into love?! It _was_ accurate, but it also felt… cheesy? And se-

“Hey, Tomato-chan!” The trickster said, snapping the blushing girl out of her thoughts. “There’s no pepper in this meat. Why are you red?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. She gave a small groan and covered her face as he chuckled. One thing she wasn’t going to allow is that he’d be the only one making fun of her, so she kept a small space open between her fingers and saw him scratching the back of his neck too. Seeing this gave her a boost of confidence as she said, still covering her face:

“It seems I’m not the only one that gets flustered easily. You find me cute, don’t you?” She said smugly, though embarrassedly. The wild card’s eyes widened as his cheeks also grew red. He tried to retort, but his words weren’t properly leaving his mouth. She smirked and put her hands back to her silverware as he tried to protest. “I did hear you mention it. I believe it was… ‘Holy crap, your yawn is so cute’, right?” She continued smugly, to which the boy couldn’t do anything but look down with a goofy smile as she ate a piece of salad. He then chuckled, which prompted her to do the same. Soon enough, both were in a mini laughing fit.

“Heh… you learned well, Queen.” He said after they both stopped laughing, though their smiles never left. “I guess soon you can also be… a Joker!” He said dramatically, though not completely convinced, trying to fix his glasses. He only poked his nose hard. She giggled at his poke. “Oh, no… My source of power!!!” He said dramatically as he covered his face, making the girl giggle even more. “What shall I do without it?! I can’t be sexy unless I have it!” He shouted loudly, which made a lot of people look their way as both laughed without a worry in the world.

Makoto noticed something at that moment: none of the responsibilities or problems that were in the back of her mind for a while were there now. They all disappeared for the moment. Of course, when she thought about them they came back, but still, they seemed… much easier to deal with. And she was getting to know him. That’s when an idea popped into her mind. “Hey, Ren-kun!” She said after both were done laughing.

“Yeah?” He replied calmly with a happy tone.

“I realized something. We know each other… pretty well.” She started with her hands on her lap, fidgeting. This caught his attention. “But… as much as we know about each other, I still want to know more about you. So…” She continued, then reached for her purse and pulled out a notebook, pencil and eraser. “Do you accept an interview? It will be for both of us, of course.”

This puzzled the boy. Was it because of what he said a few moments before? Well, either way, he wasn’t against learning more about his crush. “Of course! As long as I can also note down some things.” He said warmly to which she nodded. He grabbed his own notebook and pencil and laid them down on the table, then noticing his meat was going to get cold as he proceeded to take a bite, the girl doing the same. After both finished eating, the called the waiter to remove their plates and ordered some sparkling water. After that, they asked for the check and paid together, leaving for a better, less crowded place for a mock-up interview. Both were nervous, but willing to do it.

* * *

  
**12:52 P.M.**  
**Inokashira Park**

The park had a small crowd walking in it, yes, but it was very peaceful. There was no sun, there was wind, but it was still soothing. The leaves on the ground were gently swept away by the wind. Now that he stopped to think about it… this was the first time he brought Makoto to this park. Had she ever been here before? Ren looked to the girl and saw she was at peace with herself. She had the notebook and pencil in hand as both walked around, looking for a good place for their experiment.

Both found a table near the river a few minutes later, with the frizzy-haired boy signaling the girl to start after both sat down.

“Let’s start small: what’s your height?” She asked simply.

“Well, 1,77m. I didn’t grow up much this year… you?” He answered honestly.

“1,66m. Seems like we both haven’t grown much this year.” She thought aloud before continuing. “Weight?”

“Been a while since I last weighed myself, but at around… 64, 65kg? The muscles definitely help.” He said with pride in his voice, but no smirk: just a genuine smile. “I won’t ask the same of-“

“I weight 60Kg.” She blurted out to his surprise. “I… also believe it’s due to muscles…” She answered embarrassedly, but warmly. He wasn’t expecting her to tell him her weight, but now he knew he could carry her if he wanted to. Okay, that thought made him embarrassed, if he NEEDED to. Alright, good.

“I wonder how much of our weight is muscle?” He asked aloud to try and make her feel less embarrassed.

“Well… muscle is denser than fat… so… maybe around 30% to me and 40% to you?” She suggested running the numbers on her head.

“30% and 40% makes a lot of sense. I think I read somewhere recently that fit adults have that %. Does that mean we will be fit adults?” He asked, genuinely curious (and worried). She smiled.

“If we keep our training up, then yes. I’m still training Aikido, so I think I’ll be fine, but do you have a place to train, Ren-kun?” She asked, leaning closer to him.

“Well, I learned how to train in Leblanc from Morgana and I sometimes train in Protein Lovers.” He said, scratching his cheek. “But that just keeps me barely in shape. I try to train every opportunity I can, but there were times in which I gained too much fat. I wanna find a place to try and exercise more regularly.” He explained. “Does your Aikido dojo have any free spots?”

She thought for a second. “I… don’t know. I’ll check for you.” She replied with a smile. He smiled back before asking another question.

“My turn! What’s somewhere you wish you could go to?” He asked neutrally.

“Somewhere… hm…” The red-eyed girl thought, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. Her expression changed from normal to a sad smile. “Well… there was one place I’ve wanted to go for a few years, but I was never able to go.”

“What place?” The gray-eyed boy asked, leaning closer to her. She looked down in both embarrassment and sadness.

The headband girl took a deep breath. “You know how I am a big fan of Buchimaru-kun already. It’s childish, but I love it nonetheless.” She started, to which the boy smiled. He also enjoyed the show, especially those times he watched it with the girl. He nodded. “Even though I watched the show since I was about 4 or 5, I only started to research about pandas because of it when I was 12. I discovered that I love them. They are beautiful animals. I even wanted to have one, until daddy said it was hard to keep a panda… which makes sense, considering their situation.” She admitted embarrassedly, scratching the back of her neck. “I was a bit stubborn back then…”

“A bit? And only back then?” Ren interrupted with a smile. She rolled her eyes with a matching smile.

“Fine. I was as stubborn as I am today-“ She said in an ‘annoyed’ tone, to which the leader chuckled and nodded. “-and really wanted to see a panda that looked just like Buchimaru-kun. He then promised me that, one day, when he would be calmer and had received his paycheck, he would take me and Sis to Panda bridge and then to Ueno Zoo to see the pandas.” She said melancholically, to which her friend felt a pang to his heart. “We were all excited. Even Sis seemed willing to go. Daddy was making plans for us to go in one and a half months’ time after my 15th birthday, which would be when he had a break from his job.” The brunette said before pausing and sniffing, tears forming in her eyes. The darkness user started to feel some desperation. He didn’t want her to cry. “He… lost his life… two weeks after that promise…” She said, trying her hardest not to cry. The frizzy-haired boy got up and sat by her side. “Sis… never brought it up. She got busy with her education, trying to get a job and keeping a roof over our heads…” She sniffed harder. “Of course, I don’t blame her… but…”

Ren put his hand on her hair, stroking it gently. “You never lost the desire to go there.” He finished for her. She nodded and leaned against his shoulder, a single tear streaming down her cheek. He leaned against her head, offering her comfort. She couldn’t hold it in and stared quietly crying as he held her. He also nearly cried. He felt… so much to this girl, and he wanted to make her happy. She had been through a lot of bad things in life, and he thought she deserved better. Of course, those bad events were what made her stronger, but it doesn’t mean he wanted them to keep happening to her. After a few minutes, after she calmed down enough to not cry, he started speaking again. “Makoto.”

“Yes, Ren-kun?” She asked sadly.

“I… may not be your dad… and I can’t replace him… but…” He started, trying to figure out the correct words to say. “I… this was almost like a dream for you, wasn’t it? The trip to the zoo, I mean.”

She looked at him. “…yes. It was a dream after daddy said we were going to go.”

“Then… do you accept… if I tried to make it a reality?” He asked with a tremble in his voice. He was scared to offer her this. On one hand, he wanted to fulfill her dream. On the other… he couldn’t replace her father or her sister. It seemed almost wrong of him to suggest it. She could never have the experience she wanted. The world took it away from her, along with her father and her sister’s innocence. When he noticed, he was already offering her the idea. He wanted to give her something back that the world took away from her. He looked at her and her eyes were full of water again. “…” He gently brushed the new tears away with his hand.

The third-year expected and, at the same time, didn’t expect his proposal. She wanted so, so badly to go to that zoo just to see the pandas… but she never went because her father wouldn’t be the one going with her. She never brought it up to her sister because she knew it wouldn’t be something important to her. She didn’t want to bother her Sis with something trivial and childish. But… it was important to her. It was about finally seeing an animal that meant something to her with her family. Said family no longer existed… at least, not in the way it did back then. She would try and bring some of it back with her sister, but for the meantime, she didn’t have the close family she wanted.

No… that was a lie.

She did have a family that was close. It wasn’t her biological family, but the Phantom Thieves were a new family. Ryuji and Ann even joked that she was the ‘mom’ of the team. They couldn’t replace her biological family, they couldn’t, but she could make new memories with them _and_ with her biological family.

And there was Ren. If she was the ‘mom’ of the team… would he be the ‘dad’? It would make sense… and… she felt a different connection with him. The tears that were leaving her eyes weren’t just of sadness. They were also of happiness and relief. At the same time that she knew the exact dream she had wouldn’t be fulfilled, she wanted it to be fulfilled somehow. To have that dream become a reality with the boy… no, the soon-to-be man that stole her heart would be magical. She leaned into his touch and put her hand on top of his. “I… it won’t be the same as I had envisioned it…” She admitted lowly. “But… I want to go with you Ren. Just with you.” She revealed, looking up to meet his eyes with a smile. He smiled back, tears in his own eyes as well.

He felt honored, relieved and happy that she accepted his offer. It showed how much she trusted him. He wasn’t going to let her down. Plus… if they were going alone… it could be considered a date…

His cheeks grew red at the thought and at the girl’s proximity. Her own also became red when she noticed the same thing. But it didn’t stop them. Both started leaning closer to each other. Their faces were millimeters apart as they looked into each other’s eyes. Both closed them and kept leaning closer. Their lips were so close to touching.

“Awww, how cute!” A voice suddenly rang loudly through the park, making both teens jump and stand in defensive positions. Both looked to the side and saw the three boys: Akio Himura, the one that just spoke, Daiki Mizushima, who was recording them with a phone, and Hayato Maki, who looked… uncomfortable…? “The delinquent criminal and the honor council president are suuuuch a cute couple! Isn’t that right, fellas?” Himura said mockingly to the other two, to which Mizushima nodded silently (still holding the phone sideways) and Maki gave a weak laugh. “But wait… if you’re a criminal…” He said, pointing to Ren, who looked extremely on edge. “…and you like him…” He continued, pointing to Makoto, who looked furious. “…then that means that you are fine with this criminal’s actions. Which means… you are also someone that lets crimes go unpunished.” He concluded. “Which means… we gotta teach you both the meaning of being a good citizen.” He said, cracking his knuckles, Mizushima following suit after putting the phone in his pocket and Maki too, though much weakly than the other two. Ren put an arm up to shield Makoto, but she pulled it down. He looked at her worriedly, to which she nodded.

“Together.” She said, to which he gave a small smile. They both looked at the three boys, who weren’t expecting such a response, as all looked less prepared to beat their asses than a minute ago.

“Apparently, your courage is as frail as the chain that’s holding your nose in place.” Ren taunted to Himura, pointing at the punk’s chain. “It’s a nice chain and a nice nose. Too bad the latter can’t be there without the former…” He mocked, to which Makoto nodded with a smirk and the other two boys looked stunned.

“What the fuck…” The golden earring boy said. “How the hell did you even notice my chain? Aren’t you blind?” He asked with a hint of sarcasm and genuine curiosity.

“I can see the small outline of a line with a bunch of holes. Kinda similar to you, actually.” The gray-eyed boy replied, tilting his head from side to side, pretending to be examining the boy. “Actually… what’s that on your chest? Is it a ‘you tried’ badge?” He asked.

“Piece of… it’s a police badge!” The punk screamed. _‘Hit a weak spot!’_ Ren thought. “And this badge represents justice! Time for you to learn what that word means!” The punk said before lunging forward, the other two following suit, as he threw a punch to the ‘delinquent’s’ nose, right where he punched earlier on the day. The boy, not intimidated by this, ducked and threw a small punch to the boy’s gut, making him wheeze for air, kneeling on the ground.  _'I'm NOT gonna let you have the chance again, asshole!'_ He thought. Makoto tripped Mizushima with a swift leg movement to his feet as his head hit the ground, nearly knocking him out.  _'This is the second time you have come for me and you still fall in one attack.'_ She thought. As both readied themselves to deal with the third boy, he ran towards them, dodged their attacks by ducking quickly under their punches and pulled them both towards him. He didn’t stop, however, as he kept running, dragging them across the park as both tried to struggle free of his grasp, which was hard, because he was holding them in a way they couldn't get free from his grasp, confused by his action. They tried to kick his legs as he ran, but he just hopped over the kicks and helped Ren keep running when he nearly lost his balance. Was he gonna throw them in the lake? On the ground? What was he going to do?

Maki let them go near the station after one or two minutes of running and quickly said: “For the love of God, run away.”

Both teens were on edge and confused, so neither responded. The third 'punk(?)' looked impatient and mortified.

“God… don’t you realize I’m helping you?” He said, annoyed. “Take the next train and GO! Those two are gonna catch up real quick and then beat you both up if you don’t run!” He continued, pushing them both inside the station. A lot of people started to stare at the action as both Phantom Thieves’ members looked confused.

“Why are you helping us?” Makoto asked confused, starting to walk toward the train.

“Their sense of justice is warped.” The ‘bully’ said. “Listen, just trust me, okay? I’ve already sent a request to the Phan-site to have their hearts changed.” He said quickly and with some desperation, which made both older teens look at each other with shock and worry on their faces. “Fuck, I gotta go back… I’m gonna say I was chasing you but lost you on the station. That should be enough for them to not hit me too hard…” He said.

Ren grabbed his arm. “You’re Hayato Maki, right?” He asked seriously, to which the boy looked surprised.

“How do you know my name?”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re also gonna send a request to help you. Hope you stay safe!” The trickster said as he pulled Makoto towards him and both ran to take the train. Both teens looked back for a second and gave the boy a wave before vanishing into the train.

They looked at each other. “I hope he stays well…” Ren said.

“If what he’s telling us is true, then yes, I hope he is…” The vice-leader replied, grabbing her phone from her pocket and opening the Phan-site. After opening the requests, she gasped. “He was telling the truth!” She said as she showed him the phone. It read:

 _I hope you’re reading this, Phantom Thieves. I need your help. There are two guys who are massive jerks in my school and force me to help them “teach criminals a lesson”, which is just beating people they suspect are criminals up. I… am part of this too. In the begging, we just talked to people, but after a while, they started beating them up and told me to join in or else I would get some, too. They are sons of police officers that also beat up the criminals they arrest. You guys talk about “distorted desires” in your calling cards. I think… their desires are distorted. They wanted justice in the begging, but now… it’s just brutality. Their names are Akio Himura and Daiki Mizushima. Both are students of Shujin Academy._  
_Oh... I also gotta say my name. I might need some change in desire, too. My name is Hayato Maki._  
_Please change their hearts and mine (if needed). The two that are here now aren't the ones I met back then._

“Holy crap…” The PT’s leader said after he read the message, him and his crush getting off on Shibuya station. He started scrolling down on the page and also made a low grunt. “Found another one.” He said, handing the girl back her phone in a new request, made right after the one they just read:

_There are three boys that think justice against criminals is beating them up. It’s really bad, and I want you guys to put a stop to them. They beat up someone innocent today and left school, so I’m afraid they might be going after someone else. Their names are Akio Himura, Daki Mizushima and Hayato Maki. Please steal their desires, thieves!_

“This is unsettling…” The nuclear user said, to which her crush nodded as both stood in front of the 99 Men’s wall, the place in which they traveled to the Metaverse. “Well, our time is short. We should send them the warning and try to find another good place to hide.”

“I agree.” The Fool said, grabbing his phone, quickly typing a calling card and posting it on the Phan-site:

_To the three students known as Akio Himura, Daiki Mizushima and Hayato Maki, sinners of pride who exploit innocents under the guise of justice. The three of you say that your causes are just, that you fight against criminals, yet you only go after suspects, many of whom are innocent. For this reason, we will take your distorted desires without fail. From, The Phantoms._

“Why did you include Hayato?” The red-eyed girl asked, annoyed. “He helped us!”

“I know, but he himself asked us to put his name in there. I doubt he has a Shadow, but if he has, we can help him, too.” The gray-eyed boy whispered back to her. “Now, it’s best we-“

At that moment, he felt a chill down his spine. He looked back to the train and saw leaving it the two delinquents and the boy who helped them, the two older ones looking furious and the helper had red marks on his face. The two beat him up pretty bad, as there was some dried blood in his face. The thief cursed under his breath, noticing with his Third Eye that they were looking around to try and find them, their 'auras' glowing bright red for the two and gray for the youngest one. Without thinking, he pulled the vice-leader along with him to the corridor and opened the Meta-nav.

“What are you…?!” She asked desperately in a whisper.  _'No! Please, not now, Ren-kun!'_

“We don’t have time!” He replied in the same tone as he activated the app, the world around them distorting until it became Mementos.  _'I'm sorry...'_

Ren felt his thief garb materialize around him. He looked to his crush as she looked back at him, her eyes wide in shock.

"Joker..." She started. "Why now...?" She asked sadly, looking at her thief garb, the familiar dirty walls of Mementos and then to the ground.

The Phantom Thieves' leader looked to his vice-leader in sadness and put his hands on her shoulder. She looked up to him. "I'm sorry. I... panicked." He revealed sadly and with regret. "I used my Third Eye to see their auras... the word that came to mind was 'savage'." He explained. "Maybe we could've run away... but..." He stopped and looked down.

The vice-leader held his left hand with her right. "You feared for our safety, right?" She guessed, to which he nodded. She sighed sadly. "I guess... our time for relaxation is over... correct?" She said mournfully. He smiled melancholically.

"Unfortunately... yes." He acknowledged.

She sighed. "...it was fun while it lasted..." She said in a low volume, leaning into his hand.

"...yes, it was.." He said in the same volume, putting his head over hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo, this chapter. Late, but as I said in the beginning, it helped me define a LOT of concepts that I felt wound up working pretty well! Akio and Daisuke being sons of corrupt policemen and Hayato being a friend to them that's being forced to act this way was something that kept gradually changing and taking shape as I thought of the conflict for this chapter. The ending, with them being forced to come to Mementos, was something I had planned since the beginning, but I only found the best way to put them both in that situation (AKA, Ren getting desperate) TODAY, when I was finishing the revisions and the chapter. I almost slapped myself for not thinking about that sooner, but I felt like it worked really well.  
> And yes, we will have ANOTHER chapter for this day, but it will be the last one! The third part of October 7th will be the final part and it will move the story forward a lot in all the aspects (so expect something pretty different from this chapter).  
> I'm also planning the chapter for October 8th, which is Saturday in-game/in-story, and I think I got a pretty good idea of how to do it.  
> ALSO, if the scene in which Ren and Makoto are doing an interview with each other seems familiar to you, it's because I was inspired by the scene from the 1978 Superman movie, in which Lois Lane interviews Superman (I actually didn't watch the movie, but after I saw HiTop Films' video on the scene {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdXrRtQLRYM&t=} I was HOOKED.)
> 
> As always, here are the links I used for research for this chapter!  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_Japan  
> https://aramajapan.com/news/music/dam-reveal-their-yearly-karaoke-ranking-for-2016/68082/  
> https://aramajapan.com/news/music/dam-reveal-their-yearly-karaoke-ranking-for-2016/68082/2/ (The site I used to see the most popular karaoke songs in 2016)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC09iF_kAQw (This video also helped me a LOT during the karaoke scene. When I discovered that you could choose international songs and the year, I immediately wanted to put "The Calling" from TheFatRat as the song Ren chose. The second song Makoto sang... it was BANG BANG BANG!)  
> https://nidsun.org/what-does-your-total-body-weight-consists-of-and-what-are-the-proportions-of-fat-muscles-connective-tissue-and-bones/ (this one is the site Ren mentions in the story)  
> https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g14134278-d320636-Reviews-Ueno_Zoo-Uenokoen_Taito_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html  
> https://www.japanvisitor.com/japan-city-guides/japan-stations/ueno-station  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#Pride  
> http://barbacoa.jp/shibuya/ (This is the site for the restaurant they went in. I was surprised when I saw there was a Brazilian restaurant in Tokyo!)  
> https://www.quotev.com/story/9496702/Persona-5-with-YN/36 (This one I used to see how the Madarame calling card was written, so I could have an idea for how the Phantom Thieves write the calling cards. I think I did a good job on the online calling card!)  
> https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese  
> https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? Are you liking the direction the story is going so far?  
> If you have any suggestions, criticism (praise or critiques) or just want to scream at my face, please consider leaving a comment! I promise I'll read it!  
> See you next chapter!


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